By Jonathan Brazeau
Now that the calendar has flipped to August, that means one thing: the curling tour season has begun.
Yes, curling is a four-season sport with the Wakkanai Midori Challenge Cup kicking things off this past weekend in Hokkaido, Japan.
It’s sure to be the busiest season ahead, too, with not only tour events, but also Olympic trials and pre-trials; Olympic qualifying events; the Winter Olympics; national, continental/pan continental and world championships; the Grand Slam of Curling and the all-new Rock League.
All of that awaits us in the distance. For now, here’s a roundup of what you may have missed lately and what’s just around the corner.
FIRST END: Team Fujisawa struck first, posting a perfect record to capture the Wakkanai Midori Challenge Cup women’s title. Fujisawa capped things off with a decisive 8-3 victory over short-handed Team Ueno in Sunday’s final.
Team Maeda, also playing as three, took the men’s title with a 5-1 win over Team Hirata, but it was a shot-of-the-season candidate (even though the season just began) in the semifinals against Team Abe that made it possible. Down by two points in the eighth end, skip Takumi Maeda pulled off a slash double to score three and win 4-3 to advance to the championship game.
The Wakkanai Midori Challenge Cup is the first of four events on the Hokkaido Curling Tour, which began play in 2022. Next up is the Hokkaido Bank Curling Classic in Sapporo starting Thursday.
SECOND END: Considering the Japanese Olympic Trials are just over a month away, the Hokkaido Curling Tour serves as a crucial tune-up for teams like Fujisawa.
Fujisawa will face Ueno and Team Yoshimura in a double round-robin during the trials.
After winning bronze at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the team of skip Satsuki Fujisawa, third Chinami Yoshida, second Yumi Suzuki and lead Yurika Yoshida will look to reach the top step on the podium next year in Milano-Cortina.
There’s a detour down that road, though. Whoever wins Japan's trials will need to compete in the Olympic Qualification Event (Dec. 6-13 in Kelowna, B.C.) to book a ticket to Italy. That shouldn’t be a problem if it's Fujisawa, as her team went down that path four years ago, advancing out of the Olympic Qualification Event in the Netherlands to secure a spot in Beijing.
Since earning Olympic silver, Fujisawa captured her first career Grand Slam of Curling title at the 2023 Canadian Open — a historic moment as her team became the first from Japan to win a title in the series.
Ueno and Yoshimira have won the past two national championships though and represented Japan at the World Women’s Curling Championship. Both missed the playoffs and fell short of earning Japan a direct berth to the Winter Olympics.
THIRD END: Speaking of the Winter Olympics, Great Britain, Sweden and Switzerland have all named their teams for Milano-Cortina.
Team Mouat was a lock for Team GB on the men’s side after a sensational season, winning the World Men’s Curling Championship and becoming the first to claim four Grand Slam of Curling titles in a single season. Team Morrison was selected on the women’s side with Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds also competing in mixed doubles.
Mouat and Dodds, who earned silver at this year's World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, aren’t the only ones who will be handling double duty at the Winter Olympics.
Sweden’s Rasmus Wranå (with Isabella Wranå) and Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller (with Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann) will also play mixed doubles and on their four-player teams.
Team Edin will look to defend the men’s gold for Sweden with 2018 Olympic champ Team Hasselborg representing the women’s side.
Switzerland will send world men's silver medallist Team Schwaller and four-time world women's champ Team Tirinzoni.
You’re probably already looking at some teams that will take home hardware in Milano-Cortina and they'll get a head start out of the gate in preparation this season.
FOURTH END: Team Gim is also heading to Italy after winning the Korean National Curling Championship in June.
Gim should factor in the playoff picture as well, based on recent results at the World Women’s Curling Championship. The world No. 6 club captured bronze in 2024 and just missed the podium this year, losing to China in the bronze game to finish fourth. Oddly enough, Gim defeated world champ Team Homan in the group stage both times but lost the rematches in the semifinals.
Eun-ji Gim skipped her team to South Korea’s first Grand Slam title at the 2023 National but has had a tough run in the series lately. The squad has made it to the semifinals in the Grand Slams only once since then and missed the playoffs in four straight events last season.
FIFTH END: We know Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant will represent Canada in mixed doubles, but who will wear the Maple Leaf for the men’s and women’s tournaments?
The Canadian Olympic trials will take place Nov. 22-30 in Halifax to determine those teams. The draw schedule was released in June with some tantalizing matchups on tap.
Team Homan is the clear favourite on the women’s side as the two-time reigning Canadian and world champ. The Ottawa-based club, which competed for Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics, won both Scotties Tournament of Hearts titles undefeated with a combined 22-0 record. Rachel Homan has also skipped her squad to four Grand Slam titles and eight finals in the series over the past two seasons — Tirinzoni is the only other team to win multiple Grand Slam titles over that span. Canada hasn’t won Olympic gold in men’s or women’s curling since 2014 and Homan is Canada’s best shot at returning to the top of the podium.
Four-time Scotties champ Team Einarson would beg to differ. Einarson defeated Homan in the women’s final of last season’s Tour Challenge and earned silver at the Scotties Tournament of Hearts. Skip Kerri Einarson wrapped up the season by stealing the show at the TCG All-Star Game in Nashville with MVP-like heroics. The Gimli, Man., club should have second Shannon Birchard back in the lineup after she missed almost all of last season recovering from a knee injury. When Einarson and Homan face off, it’s a must-watch game — they’ll meet in the women's round-robin finale of the Olympic trials.
Supported by the home crowd, Halifax’s own Team Black could make some noise and wouldn’t that be quite the story?
Things are tighter on the men’s side, but Team Jacobs gets the nod as the favourite for now. The reigning Brier champ and world bronze medallist also finished runner-up in two Grand Slam of Curling events last season and is ranked No. 3 in the world.
Brier silver medallist Team Dunstone is right up there at No. 4 with Team McEwen (No. 6), Team Gushue (No. 7) and Team Epping (No. 10) also ranked in the top 10 among the world’s best. The picture should become clearer as the season unfolds, but it might come down to which skip has the hot hand that week.
SIXTH END: South of the border, the top American teams get right into the thick of things this weekend with the USA Curling Pan Continental Qualifier running Friday to Sunday in Chaska, Minn.
The three-team fields see Team Casper, Team Dropkin and Team Shuster meeting in men’s play with Team Cousins, Team Peterson and Team Strouse squaring off on the women’s side. The winners will represent the host nation at the Pan Continental Curling Championships, Oct. 19-26, in Virginia, Minn.
This will be the first event for Team Shuster since longtime lead John Landsteiner announced last month he was stepping back from competitive curling. Landsteiner linked up with Shuster in 2011 and was part of the "Miracurl on Ice" squad that captured gold at the 2018 Winter Olympics.
What should be interesting about the qualifier is if it'll be a prelude for the U.S. Olympic trials in November.
SEVENTH END: Broomgate 2.0 was a hot topic earlier this year, and kudos to World Curling for addressing the issue this summer. World Curling updated its equipment regulations and banned firmer broom foams that curlers had raised concerns about. Brushes with less-firm foam have been approved for competitive play. The last thing anyone wants to see is another broom controversy, especially if it were to happen at the Olympics.
EIGHTH END: The Broom Brothers podcast hasn’t taken a summer break yet, with co-host John Cullen interviewing the six Rock League captains.
Episodes on Brad Jacobs, Alina Pätz and Bruce Mouat have already dropped, with Korey Dropkin, Rachel Homan and Chinami Yoshida to come.
Some interesting nuggets have been revealed during these shows. Mouat is planning to play for at least another Olympic quad, while Jacobs detailed the lower-body injury he sustained during the TCG All-Star festivities in Nashville.
