By Devin Heroux
In a sport where winning or losing at the Olympics — that monster of an event every four years — is what defines success at the highest level, Switzerland’s last-rock thrower Alina Pätz is as unfazed as you’d expect her to be over the fact that she’s never stood on the top of the podium at the pinnacle of curling.
For the past 15 years, Pätz has been making her mark in the sport, winning numerous national, European, world, and Grand Slam titles along the way. She helped guide her foursomes to an unprecedented four world championship titles from 2019-23, during which they strung together 42 consecutive wins.
By many accounts, Pätz is one of the best ever to play the game — and she’s still at it.
Remarkably, she’s won those six world championship titles with four different teams. Whatever the lineup, whoever is playing, Pätz is going to find a way to win.
Now all that’s left on the to-do list is an Olympic gold.
In a recent conversation with host John Cullen on the Broom Brothers podcast, Pätz was as “cool” and confident as she’s been for much of her career. No moment ever seems to be too big for Pätz, at least that’s what she outwardly projects.
Pätz, 35, says she likes to be social “and talk to different people,” something she believes is what has attracted curlers to want to be a part of her orbit. She also simply loves curling and the team she gets to be on the road with, along with other curlers. Her passion for it is unmistakable.
And yet, for as well-known as she is in curling circles — and in Canada — that’s not the case in her home country of Switzerland. When asked if she’s considered a sporting celebrity, Pätz quickly responded and smiled.
“Absolutely not," she said. "And it's so fun because my close friends, they all have nothing to do with curling and they think like I'm like a superstar because I'm a world champion, but people don't even know curling sometimes.
“And then when we go out and have a couple of drinks, they're telling everybody, she's a famous curler, she's world champion in curling, and there are people who are like, OK, good for you, I guess.”
Pätz opened up about that missing Olympic medal and how not much in her life would change should she finally be able to win one.
“Having an Olympic medal would be like, not the best thing you can have, but like a good round up for your whole career. Add the last thing that's missing, right?” she said.
“But to not have that, I can also have a really good life without the Olympic medal. It's not like I really need to have it to have a successful curling career. It's also really successful for me right now, but of course I want to win the medal, and if it happens, to win that gold medal would be very satisfying.”
For those who have spent time with her, this is as Alina Pätz as it gets for an answer. She has this calm, inviting energy that makes her so easy to spend time with. And it’s likely this extremely healthy relationship she has with not having an Olympic medal that has allowed her to continue to play at the highest level — and still really enjoy curling.
The grind of all of this, the pressure to win, has ended curling careers prematurely — and if it didn’t end a career, it certainly left a sour taste toward the end for those who dared to be brave enough to take to the ice time and time again, searching for greatness.
But Pätz has done it all and seen it all. Well, almost.
She was recently named one of six Rock League captains heading into the inaugural season. Pätz will be leading one of the European teams that will undoubtedly be laced with talent. She’s accepted the challenge but is still wrapping her head around being selected.
“It means so much to me. I was kind of speechless, to be honest," Pätz said. "I think it's just such a privilege to do that, and there are so many good curlers in Europe. I mean like Anna Hasselborg, Isabella Wranå, Jennifer Dodds.
“To be chosen to be one of those captains is a little crazy. I was surprised anyways to like to get the chance to do something like the Rock League. I didn't know about that before, and it was a big surprise, but a good one.”
Pätz joins Bruce Mouat, Chinami Yoshida, Brad Jacobs, Rachel Homan and Korey Dropkin as the first six captains of Rock League. The five-event first season is scheduled to begin in mid-April and run through mid-May.
Each team will feature five men and five women — gender equity in curling has featured prominently for decades, and that isn’t stopping at Rock League. It’s something Pätz is proud to be a part of and feels can be a game-changer for the next generation.
“Women's sport is growing so fast all over the whole world, especially like in Switzerland right now there is the soccer women's Euro Championship. It shows that women's sports is getting more and more important and to be captain of a team in a league like where women and men play at the same level and on the same team that's kind of special,” she said.
“I think, and that's also something that I hear a lot from people asking me about the Rock League. That's like a really, really important point for people like looking into the Rock League.”
The full rosters will be unveiled this fall, and Pätz is already starting to plot what her team and the other teams will look like.
“Of course I'm nervous. I mean, I'm thinking about playing with so many good players who have the same experience that I have or have played and won so many tournaments like Grand Slams, worlds, whatever,” she said.
“It's kind of nerve-wracking. Makes me a little nervous.”
But of course, you’d never know it from her poised outward demeanour.
Pätz and her team, including skip Silvana Tirinzoni, second Carole Howald and lead Selina Witschonke, are already on the ice in Switzerland preparing for this pivotal upcoming season.
The team knew they were the Olympic representatives for their country since the completion of last season, so that has allowed them to focus on what their schedule will look like going into the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in February.
Pätz says it’s business as usual heading into the season, but they will start with fewer tournaments and then build up to the Games.
“I mean, we always start curling in July, so that's not new," she said. "We always do a lot of technical stuff early in the season. This is not new, and so you also try to do nothing different.
“I think we were so successful over the last few years. And I mean like every player, every team has some weaknesses they try to work on, but that's not different to any other season.”
Perhaps Team Tirinzoni and Team Homan are on a collision course for an Olympic gold medal clash in Cortina based on how the past two world championships have gone. The two juggernaut teams have met in the title game, with Homan coming away with gold both times.
Homan still has to qualify for the Olympics by winning the Canadian trials in November.
“If I could sign up for that right now to be in a final against Rachel at the Olympics, I would do that, that's for sure,” Pätz said.
“They have been outstanding over the last two years. It’s amazing what they did. It's incredible. To lose only like I don't know, six games in a season, I don't know how, how they did it.”
Pätz has thought a lot about her battles with Homan during this off-season and believes the ending could be different the next time around.
“When we play them, we know we can beat them. But we also know we have to play really well to beat them. Because they are like on a certain level in every game they play," said Pätz, whose team defeated Homan in the final of the season-ending AMJ Players' Championship.
“And if they don't have their A game, if they have their B game, Rachel still comes up with some crazy magician shots. We just have to make sure we bring our A game. If not, we're going to lose against them.”
Pätz says it’s this knowledge, knowing that you’ll have to play that much better against Homan, that caused her and her team to make some questionable calls she believes cost them at times.
“If you play like somebody like Rachel's team, you want to be even better than you are. In your head, everything is going crazy a little bit. So, you try to be extra good and place the rock somewhere extra, extra good, which is not needed, and then you start to make stupid calls,” she said.
“And I think if we don't do like two or three calls against them, we win at least two more games this season.”
