By Jolene Latimer
You’ll find it at the centre of every era in sport. Chris Evert versus Martina Navratilova. Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier. Larry Bird versus Magic Johnson. Nancy Kerrigan versus Tonya Harding. To captivate and endure, every sport needs a rivalry. Rivalries are the scaffolding of memory. They turn talent into legacy, contests into eras.
As much as pundits, bettors and analysts would like to claim they can see the future, most true rivalries are unpredictable. Driven by a common quest for greatness, they push and shape each other, and fans can only hope to recognize one when they’re in its midst.
Today, such a rivalry is growing in curling. On one side: Rachel Homan, Canada’s prodigy turned champion, a skip defined by aggression and precision. On the other: Silvana Tirinzoni, Switzerland’s tactician, patient and unflinching, who built a dynasty through calculation and control.
Their resumes already collide in bold type. Tirinzoni won four consecutive world championships from 2019 to 2023. Homan stopped the streak in 2024 with a 7-5 victory in Sydney, N.S., then defended the title in 2025 with a 7-3 win in Uijeongbu, South Korea. Homan and Tirinzoni have met in multiple Grand Slam finals over recent seasons — Homan held a 5-2 edge in Slam finals before the 2025 AMJ Masters.
But if their meeting in the final of this year’s AMJ Masters in London, Ont., is any indication, nothing has been settled between the two. Yes, Homan came out on top with a 6-4 win that capped an undefeated run through the tournament, but the baton hasn’t been passed. It hangs in the air, both skips still reaching, the sport’s balance of power contested every time they meet. If the past two world finals underscored how thin the margins are, the Grand Slam circuit has kept reminding everyone that the rivalry is alive every month, not just every spring.
“You know it’s always going to be a great game against them,” said Team Homan’s Sarah Wilkes. “They always bring their best, and we know that we have to bring our best every time we play them. It was a battle, like it is every time.”
That’s the paradox of this matchup: the scoreboard can tilt one way, but the sensation is of two teams locked in constant dead heat. As Homan herself admitted, “They played phenomenal … really just a rock here or there that made a big difference in the end.”
Rivalries aren’t just nice to have — in women’s sports, they often give momentum a shape. Consider the Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark rivalry in women’s basketball. When Clark and Reese squared off in the 2023 NCAA championship, it did more than decide a title — it suspended disbelief and pulled in eyeballs. That rematch in 2024 shattered viewership records, and reporters credited the rivalry itself as a reason narratives stayed alive between seasons.
Studies of sports consumption show what you can probably already guess: a lot of people tune in for rivalries. One analysis found that traditional trophy-based rivalries generate spikes in digital engagement regardless of who wins. In a media landscape where women’s sports still fight for consistent coverage — only about 15 per cent of sports media space is dedicated to women’s sports on average — rivalries provide something we’re all looking for: a chance to talk about women’s sports.
Rivalries are nothing new to women’s curling, but this is the first one to emerge in this modern era of women’s sports, with more eyeballs on what women are doing across the board.
This is why the Homan–Tirinzoni rivalry matters beyond curling. Their duels offer a storyline that can carry over between seasons, a reason for fans, sponsors, and media to stay invested even outside Olympic cycles. That kind of continuity is a lever women’s sport needs now. In a time when many women’s sports compete for attention, a rivalry becomes not just a spectacle — it’s essential infrastructure for growth.
For curling, that infrastructure is finally in place. Homan and Tirinzoni’s ongoing battle for excellence keeps linking events that might otherwise stand alone. Their rivalry is giving the sport something women’s sports have long relied on: continuity, tension, and a reason for fans to keep showing up.
The resonance isn’t limited to the scoreboard. It spills into the stands, where the crowds have been adding to the moment.
“Amazing. It’s nice to have family and friends here, and to do it in London is just incredible,” Wilkes said after their Slam win. “The crowds were so much fun. It meant a lot.”
Even for the winners, nothing feels conclusive.
As Homan put it after another long week: “We definitely just kept building as the week went on, learned as much as we could as every game progressed and really just stuck together in every game and tried to make the next one.”
