20 December 2025
The event where Olympic dreams come true
Every curling competition has its share of winners and losers.
But few events capture the stark contrast between the joy of winning and the hurt of losing quite like the Olympic Qualification Event — where Olympic dreams come true or die with virtually every session played.
The Olympic Qualification Event in Kelowna, Canada certainly lived up to that reputation. For some, it was the ultimate triumph: women’s teams from Japan and United States, men’s teams from China and United States, and mixed doubles pairings from Czechia and Korea all secured their tickets for Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February.
For many others, however, the journey ended with a heavy heart and questioning what comes next.
A nail biting finish
In the mixed doubles event, margins were decidedly close. All four teams that reached the play-offs only lost one round-robin game — a testament to the intensity of the competition.
And for both qualifiers — Czechia and Korea — nothing was guaranteed until the last stone came to rest.
After winning the first play-off, Czechia’s Julie Zelingrova admitted, “No one thought we would make the play-offs, so it’s just amazing — I’m just so happy!”
Highlighting just how competitive the event was, her partner Vit Chabicovsky explained, “It’s such a difficult event. We played six games in a row where we had to win, but I thought we were good enough to have a chance.”
Speaking after the play-off victory over Australia that confirmed his place at the Olympic Games, Chabicovsky said, “We’re very proud, but it’s not sunk in yet.”
Looking forward, the twenty-year-old added, “I’d like to celebrate but I’ll need to study. Now we need to keep training and doing what we were doing there. I’ll be missing a lot of school so hopefully I won’t get kicked out.”
Dreams being realised
For Korea’s Kim Seon-Yeong and Jeong Yeongseok, who secured the second play-off spot, were equally delighted to be going to the Olympics.
Jeong said, “We weren’t looking for the result to begin with, we were just looking at playing the game. I know that for us, the Olympics is a big dream, but we knew that was the big dream for our opponents too.”
“I feel that all the training that we’ve done and all the games we’ve played are all coming back to us, and through these experiences we’ve been able to get to the Olympics.”
Kim Seon-Yeong said, “My first hope was to become the national team with Yeongseok, and my second goal was to get to the Olympics.
This will be my third time of going to the Olympics but it is the first for Yeongseok and I really wanted to make it happen for him. Our third goal now is to play well in the Olympics.”
The Kelowna competition was the fourth edition of the Olympic Qualification Event (OQE) to be held — the previous ones were in Füssen, Germany (2013), Pilsen, Czechia (2017), and Leeuwarden, Netherlands (2021).
Find all results and final standings from the Olympic Qualification Event here.
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