World Curling Championships

Sport	Curling
Founded	1959 (men) 1979 (women) 2002 (mixed wheelchair) 2008 (mixed doubles) 2016 (mixed) 2022 (mixed doubles wheelchair)
No. of teams	13
Most recent champion(s)	Sweden (men)  Canada (women)  Norway (mixed wheelchair)  Sweden (mixed doubles)  Sweden (mixed)  South Korea (mixed doubles wheelchair)
Most titles	Canada (men: 36 titles)  Canada (women: 18 titles)

The World Curling Championships are the annual world championships for curling, organized by the World Curling Federation and contested by national championship teams. There are men's, women's and mixed doubles championships, as well as men's and women's versions of junior and senior championships. There is also a world championship for wheelchair curling. The men's championship started in 1959, while the women's started in 1979. The mixed doubles championship was started in 2008. Since 2005, the men's and women's championships have been held in different venues, with Canada hosting one of the two championships every year: the men's championship in odd years, and the women's championship in even years. Canada has dominated both the men's and women's championships since their inception, although Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark, Germany (West Germany), Scotland, the United States, Norway and China have all won at least one championship.

The World Curling Championships began in 1959 as the Scotch Cup. The Scotch Cup was created by Toronto public relations executive and former sports journalist Stanley D. Houston on behalf of the Scotch Whisky Association, a client of Houston's agency Public Relations Services Limited, which was looking to generate increased North American exposure for its products.^{[citation needed]} The first three Cups were contested between men's teams from Scotland and Canada. The United States joined the Scotch Cup in 1961, and Sweden also joined the next year. Canada won the first six world titles, of which the legendary rink skipped by Ernie Richardson earned four. The United States was the first country to break Canada's streak, winning their first world title in 1965. By 1967, Norway, Switzerland, France, and Germany were added to the Scotch Cup, and Scotland won their first title, while Canada finished without a medal for the first time. The tournament was renamed the Air Canada Silver Broom the year after that, and Canada strung together five consecutive world titles starting in that year.

In 1973, the competing field was expanded to ten teams, and Italy and Denmark were introduced to the world stage. Sweden, Switzerland, and Norway won their first titles in the following years, and Canada continued to win medals of all colours. In 1979, the first edition of the women's World Curling Championships was held. The championships were held separately from the men's championships for the first ten years. During this time, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, and Germany won world titles.

Bronze medals were not awarded until 1985 for the women's tournament and 1986 for the men's tournament. Between 1989 and 1994, the bronze medal was shared by the semifinals losers.

Beginning in 1989, the men's and women's championships were held together. Norway won their first world women's title. In 1995, Ford Canada and the World Curling Federation reached an agreement to make Ford the sponsor of the World Curling Championships. Japan, the first nation from Asia to compete in the worlds, made their debut in 1990 at the women's championship, and later in 2000 at the men's championship. South Korea and China followed suit in the 2000s. Scotland won their first women's title in 2002, and the United States won their first women's title the next year.

In 2005, the men's and women's championships were separated, and an agreement was made between the World Curling Federation and the Canadian Curling Association that Canada would host one of the tournaments annually each year, all of which are title sponsored by Ford of Canada. Canada began a streak of top two finishes in the men's tournament, and China won their first world title in the women's tournament in 2009.

In 2008, a world championship for mixed doubles curling was created. Switzerland won the first world mixed doubles title, and proceeded to win four of the first five titles. Russia and Hungary won their first world curling titles in the mixed doubles championship, and New Zealand, France, Austria, and the Czech Republic won their first world curling medals.

In 2015, a world championship for mixed curling was created, replacing the European Mixed Curling Championship and supplanting the European Mixed and Canadian Mixed curling championships as the highest level of mixed curling in the world.^[1]

In 2019, the World Qualification Event was introduced, to qualify the final two teams in the men's and women's championships.^[2] A mixed doubles qualification event will also be added in the 2019–20 curling season, qualifying the final four teams of the twenty-team mixed doubles championship.^[3]

In 2020, the men's, women's and mixed doubles championships were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[4][5][6]

The World Curling Championships have been known by a number of different names over the years.

Men

• 1959–1967: Scotch Cup
• 1968–1985: Air Canada Silver Broom
• 1986–1988: IOC President's Cup (Hexagon)
• 1989–1990: WCF Championships
• 1991–1992: Canada Safeway World Curling Championship
• 1993–1994: WCF Championships
• 1995–2004: Ford World Curling Championship
• 2005–2017: Ford World Men's Curling Championship (odd years)
• 2006–2018: World Men's Curling Championship (even years)
• 2019: Pioneer Hi-Bred World Men's Curling Championship
• 2020–present: LGT World Men's Curling Championship (even years)
• 2021–present: BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men's Curling Championship (odd years)

Women

• 1979–1981: Royal Bank of Scotland World Curling Championships
• 1982: World Curling Championships
• 1983: Pioneer Life World Curling Championships
• 1984: World Curling Championships
• 1985: H&M World Curling Championships
• 1986–1990: World Curling Championships
• 1991–1992: Canada Safeway World Curling Championships
• 1993–1994: World Curling Championships
• 1995–2004: Ford World Curling Championships
• 2005–2017: World Women's Curling Championship (odd years)
• 2006–2018: Ford World Women's Curling Championship (even years)
• 2019–present: LGT World Women's Curling Championship (odd years)
• 2022–present: BKT Tires & OK Tire World Women's Curling Championship (even years)

The first two world championships, held as competitions between Scotland and Canada, were held as five-game series between the two nations. Upon the addition of the United States in 1961, the format was changed to a double round robin preliminary round with a three-team knockout round at the conclusion of the round robin. The knockout round was removed for the next two championships. With the addition of more teams, a single round robin preliminary round with a four-team knockout round was implemented in 1971. The championships occurring from 1968 to 1970 included three-team knockout rounds instead of four-team knockout rounds. The knockout round format was adjusted from single-elimination to the Page playoff system in 2005.

In the championships held from 1971 to 1985, third place was awarded to either the team that lost in the semifinal of a three-team knockout round or the higher-seeded team among the losing teams of a four-team knockout round. A bronze medal game was added to the knockout round in 1986, but bronze medal games were not held from 1989 to 1994, during which bronze medals were awarded to the teams that lost in the semifinals.

Until 2017 format of the world championships used a twelve team round-robin preliminary round, after which the top four teams advance to a knockout round held using the Page playoff system.

Starting in 2018 there are 13 teams playing round-robin preliminary round with top six advancing to a single-elimination knockout with top two receiving bye to the semifinals.^[7] This includes two teams from the Americas zone, eight from the European zone (via the European Curling Championships) and three from the Asia-Pacific zone (via the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships). For 2019, the number of teams from the Asia-Pacific zone will be reduced by one, and there will also be one less team from the zone of the bottom-placed team at the 2018 championships.^[8] The two slots will be allocated to teams from the new World Qualification Event. The qualification event will have eight teams: the host country, one team from the Americas, two from Pacific-Asia, and four from Europe.

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th place
1959	Edinburgh, Falkirk, Perth	Canada	Scotland	no other competitors
1960	Ayr, Edinburgh, Glasgow	Canada (2)	Scotland	no other competitors
1961	Ayr, Edinburgh, Kirkcaldy, Perth	Canada (3)	Scotland	United States	no other competitors
1962	Edinburgh, Falkirk	Canada (4)	United States	Scotland	Sweden
1963	Perth	Canada (5)	Scotland	United States	Sweden
1964	Calgary	Canada (6)	Scotland	United States	Sweden
1965	Perth	United States	Canada	Sweden	Scotland
1966	Vancouver	Canada (7)	Scotland	United States	Sweden
1967	Perth	Scotland	Sweden	United States	Canada
1968	Pointe-Claire	Canada (8)	Scotland	United States	Sweden
1969	Perth	Canada (9)	United States	Scotland	Sweden
1970	Utica	Canada (10)	Scotland	Sweden	United States
1971	Megève	Canada (11)	Scotland	United States	Switzerland
1972	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Canada (12)	United States	West Germany	Scotland
1973	Regina	Sweden	Canada	France	Scotland
1974	Bern	United States (2)	Sweden	Switzerland	Canada
1975	Perth	Switzerland	United States	Canada	Sweden
1976	Duluth	United States (3)	Scotland	Switzerland	Sweden
1977	Karlstad	Sweden (2)	Canada	Scotland	United States
1978	Winnipeg	United States (4)	Norway	Canada	Sweden
1979	Bern	Norway	Switzerland	Canada	West Germany
1980	Moncton	Canada (13)	Norway	Switzerland	Sweden
1981	London	Switzerland (2)	United States	Canada	Norway
1982	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Canada (14)	Switzerland	West Germany	Sweden
1983	Regina	Canada (15)	West Germany	Norway	Sweden
1984	Duluth	Norway (2)	Switzerland	Sweden	Canada
1985	Glasgow	Canada (16)	Sweden	Denmark	United States
1986	Toronto	Canada (17)	Scotland	United States	Sweden
1987	Vancouver	Canada (18)	West Germany	Norway	Denmark
1988	Lausanne	Norway (3)	Canada	Scotland	Switzerland
1989	Milwaukee	Canada (19)	Switzerland	Norway  Sweden
1990	Västerås	Canada (20)	Scotland	Denmark  Sweden
1991	Winnipeg	Scotland (2)	Canada	Norway  United States
1992	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Switzerland (3)	Scotland	Canada  United States
1993	Geneva	Canada (21)	Scotland	Switzerland  United States
1994	Oberstdorf	Canada (22)	Sweden	Germany   Switzerland
1995	Brandon	Canada (23)	Scotland	Germany	United States
1996	Hamilton	Canada (24)	Scotland	Switzerland	Norway
1997	Bern	Sweden (3)	Germany	Scotland	Canada
1998	Kamloops	Canada (25)	Sweden	Finland	Scotland
1999	Saint John	Scotland (3)	Canada	Switzerland	United States
2000	Glasgow	Canada (26)	Sweden	Finland	United States
2001	Lausanne	Sweden (4)	Switzerland	Norway	Canada
2002	Bismarck	Canada (27)	Norway	Scotland	United States
2003	Winnipeg	Canada (28)	Switzerland	Norway	Finland
2004	Gävle	Sweden (5)	Germany	Canada	Norway
2005	Victoria	Canada (29)	Scotland	Germany	Norway
2006	Lowell	Scotland (4)	Canada	Norway	United States
2007	Edmonton	Canada (30)	Germany	United States	Switzerland
2008	Grand Forks	Canada (31)	Scotland	Norway	China
2009	Moncton	Scotland (5)	Canada	Norway	Switzerland
2010	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Canada (32)	Norway	Scotland	United States
2011	Regina	Canada (33)	Scotland	Sweden	Norway
2012	Basel	Canada (34)	Scotland	Sweden	Norway
2013	Victoria[9][10]	Sweden (6)	Canada	Scotland	Denmark
2014	Beijing	Norway (4)	Sweden	Switzerland	Canada
2015	Halifax	Sweden (7)	Norway	Canada	Finland
2016	Basel[11]	Canada (35)	Denmark	United States	Japan
2017	Edmonton[12]	Canada (36)	Sweden	Switzerland	United States
2018	Paradise[13]	Sweden (8)	Canada	Scotland	South Korea
2019	Lethbridge[14]	Sweden (9)	Canada	Switzerland	Japan
2020	Glasgow[15]	Cancelled[16][17]
2021	Calgary[18]	Sweden (10)	Scotland	Switzerland	RCF
2022	Paradise[19]	Sweden (11)	Canada	Italy	United States
2023	Ottawa[20]	Scotland (6)	Canada	Switzerland	Italy
2024	Schaffhausen[21]	Sweden (12)	Canada	Italy	Scotland
2025	Moose Jaw[22]	Future event

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th place
1979	Perth	Switzerland	Sweden	Canada  Scotland
1980	Perth	Canada	Sweden	Scotland	United States
1981	Perth	Sweden	Canada	Norway	Switzerland
1982	Geneva	Denmark	Sweden	Scotland	Norway
1983	Moose Jaw	Switzerland (2)	Norway	Canada	Sweden
1984	Perth	Canada (2)	Switzerland	West Germany	Norway
1985	Jönköping	Canada (3)	Scotland	Switzerland	Sweden
1986	Kelowna	Canada (4)	West Germany	Sweden	Scotland
1987	Chicago	Canada (5)	West Germany	Switzerland	Norway
1988	Glasgow	West Germany	Canada	Sweden	Norway
1989	Milwaukee	Canada (6)	Norway	Sweden  West Germany
1990	Västerås	Norway	Scotland	Canada  Denmark
1991	Winnipeg	Norway (2)	Canada	Scotland  Sweden
1992	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Sweden (2)	United States	Canada   Switzerland
1993	Geneva	Canada (7)	Germany	Norway  Sweden
1994	Oberstdorf	Canada (8)	Scotland	Germany  Sweden
1995	Brandon	Sweden (3)	Canada	Norway	Germany
1996	Hamilton	Canada (9)	United States	Norway	Germany
1997	Bern	Canada (10)	Norway	Denmark	Japan
1998	Kamloops	Sweden (4)	Denmark	Canada	Norway
1999	Saint John	Sweden (5)	United States	Denmark	Norway
2000	Glasgow	Canada (11)	Switzerland	Norway	Scotland
2001	Lausanne	Canada (12)	Sweden	Denmark	Scotland
2002	Bismarck	Scotland	Sweden	Norway	Canada
2003	Winnipeg	United States	Canada	Sweden	Norway
2004	Gävle	Canada (13)	Norway	Switzerland	United States
2005	Paisley	Sweden (6)	United States	Norway	Canada
2006	Grande Prairie	Sweden (7)	United States	Canada	Germany
2007	Aomori	Canada (14)	Denmark	Scotland	United States
2008	Vernon	Canada (15)	China	Switzerland	Japan
2009	Gangneung	China	Sweden	Denmark	Canada
2010	Swift Current	Germany (2)	Scotland	Canada	Sweden
2011	Esbjerg	Sweden (8)	Canada	China	Denmark
2012	Lethbridge[23]	Switzerland (3)	Sweden	Canada	South Korea
2013	Riga[24]	Scotland (2)	Sweden	Canada	United States
2014	Saint John	Switzerland (4)	Canada	Russia	South Korea
2015	Sapporo[25]	Switzerland (5)	Canada	Russia	Scotland
2016	Swift Current[26]	Switzerland (6)	Japan	Russia	Canada
2017	Beijing[27]	Canada (16)	Russia	Scotland	Sweden
2018	North Bay[28]	Canada (17)	Sweden	Russia	United States
2019	Silkeborg[29]	Switzerland (7)	Sweden	South Korea	Japan
2020	Prince George[30]	Cancelled[31][32]
2021	Calgary	Switzerland (8)	RCF	United States	Sweden
2022	Prince George[33]	Switzerland (9)	South Korea	Canada	Sweden
2023	Sandviken[34]	Switzerland (10)	Norway	Canada	Sweden
2024	Sydney[35]	Canada (18)	Switzerland	South Korea	Italy
2025	Uijeongbu[36]	Future event

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th place
2015	Bern	Norway	Sweden	China	Russia
2016	Kazan[37]	Russia	Sweden	Scotland	South Korea
2017	Champéry[38]	Scotland	Canada	Czech Republic	Norway
2018	Kelowna	Canada	Spain	Russia	Norway
2019	Aberdeen	Canada (2)	Germany	Norway	South Korea
2020	Aberdeen	Cancelled[39]
2021	Aberdeen	Cancelled[40]
2022	Aberdeen[41]	Canada (3)	Scotland	Switzerland	Sweden
2023	Aberdeen[42]	Sweden	Spain	Canada	Norway
2024	Aberdeen	Sweden (2)	Japan	Switzerland	Spain
2025	Not Held	Not Held

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th place
2008	Vierumäki	Switzerland	Finland	Sweden	Norway
2009	Cortina d'Ampezzo	Switzerland (2)	Hungary	Canada	China
2010	Chelyabinsk	Russia	New Zealand	China	Spain
2011	Saint Paul	Switzerland (3)	Russia	France	Sweden
2012	Erzurum[43]	Switzerland (4)	Sweden	Austria	United States
2013	Fredericton[44]	Hungary	Sweden	Czech Republic	Norway
2014	Dumfries[45]	Switzerland (5)	Sweden	Spain	Hungary
2015	Sochi[46]	Hungary (2)	Sweden	Norway	Canada
2016	Karlstad[47]	Russia (2)	China	United States	Scotland
2017	Lethbridge[48]	Switzerland (6)	Canada	China	Czech Republic
2018	Östersund	Switzerland (7)	Russia	Canada	South Korea
2019	Stavanger	Sweden	Canada	United States	Australia
2020	Kelowna	Cancelled
2021	Aberdeen	Scotland	Norway	Sweden	Canada
2022	Geneva	Scotland (2)	Switzerland	Germany	Norway
2023	Gangneung	United States	Japan	Norway	Canada
2024	Östersund	Sweden (2)	Estonia	Norway	Switzerland
2025	Fredericton

Year	Location	Gold	Silver	Bronze	4th place
2002	Sursee	Switzerland	Canada	Scotland	Sweden
2004	Sursee	Scotland	Switzerland	Canada	England
2005	Braehead	Scotland (2)	Denmark	Switzerland	Sweden
2007	Sollefteå	Norway	Switzerland	Scotland	Canada
2008	Sursee	Norway (2)	South Korea	United States	Canada
2009	Vancouver	Canada	Sweden	Germany	United States
2011	Prague	Canada (2)	Scotland	Norway	Russia
2012	Chuncheon	Russia	South Korea	China	Slovakia
2013	Sochi	Canada (3)	Sweden	China	United States
2015	Lohja[49]	Russia (2)	China	Finland	Slovakia
2016	Lucerne[50]	Russia (3)	Norway	South Korea	Switzerland
2017	Gangneung[51]	Norway (3)	Russia	Scotland	China
2019	Stirling[52]	China	Scotland	South Korea	Norway
2020	Wetzikon[53]	Russia (4)	Canada	Sweden	China
2021	Beijing[54]	China (2)	Sweden	RCF	United States
2023	Richmond[55]	China (3)	Canada	Scotland	Sweden
2024	Gangneung[56]	Norway (4)	Canada	China	Sweden
2025	Stevenson[57]	Future event