Kerri Einarson has unfinished business at the World Women’s Curling Championship.
The 38-year-old skip will wear the Maple Leaf at the event for the fourth time following a thrilling win over Manitoba rival Team Kaitlyn Lawes in the Scotties Tournament of Hearts final back in late January from Mississauga, Ont.
Einarson, now a five-time Scotties champion, hasn’t had the same luck at the women’s worlds.
After winning her first Canadian championship in 2020, the women’s worlds in Prince George, B.C., was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Einarson and company defended their Scotties title a year later inside Calgary’s curling bubble – at the same venue where this year’s tournament is taking place – but couldn’t reach the podium at the world championship after spending multiple exhausting weeks inside the quarantined Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park.
Team Einarson won two more national titles in 2022 and 2023, seeing improvement at worlds with bronze-medal performances each time.
Still, the top step has eluded Einarson on the international stage. The Gimli, Man., rink will attempt to change the colour of the medal in Calgary, playing as the host nation against a wide-open field featuring a handful of new names.
Einarson, third Val Sweeting and second Shannon Birchard will be joined by lead Karlee Burgess for the first time at the World Women’s Curling Championship after the 27-year-old replaced Briane Harris ahead of the 2025 Scotties.
The team is rounded out by alternate Krysten Karwacki and coach Reid Carruthers, who recently announced his retirement from competitive men’s curling.
Canada’s Team Rachel Homan won the last two women’s worlds titles, but the Ottawa foursome did not attend this year’s Scotties ahead of Milano Cortina 2026.
The rest of the 13-team field has a different look to it compared to year’s past.
Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni, who’ve won four world titles since 2019, won’t be in Calgary after the veteran squad were beaten by 23-year-old Xenia Schwaller and her young rink from Zurich in the national playdowns.
Two-time Olympic champions Team Anna Hasselborg won’t represent Sweden at the worlds for the first time since time 2017, as Team Isabella Wrana will do so instead.
There will be four teams at the women’s worlds that also competed at the Olympics in Italy last month: Italy’s Stefania Constantini, China’s Rui Wang, Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont and South Korea’s Eunji Gim.
Team Einarson is fifth on the world curling rankings, the second highest-ranked team in the field behind Team Gim at No. 4.
This year’s field is as wide open as it has been in years, with no clear favorite and a slew of teams having the potential to reach the top three.
Let’s take a closer look at Canada’s path to the gold medal in Calgary.
Game 1 – Sweden (Isabella Wranå)
World Ranking: 13
Saturday, March 14 at 4 p.m. ET
Canada will begin their pursuit of world curling supremacy against Sweden’s Team Isabella Wrana.
Anna Hasselborg and her rink, fresh off winning their second Olympic gold medal at Milano Cortina 2026, will not represent Sweden at the women’s worlds for the first time since 2016.
Instead, the honour will be bestowed upon 28-year-old Isabella Wrana and her Stockholm foursome for the first time.
Wrana is also an Olympic champion after capturing the gold with brother Rasmus Wrana in the mixed doubles competition last month.
Team Wrana (37-31 in 2025-26) hasn’t won any events this season, but has regularly made the playoffs, including four of the five Grand Slams.
Expect the Swedes to qualify for the playoffs and potentially the podium. Even reaching the top step won’t be a task too tall in this wide-open field.
Game 2 – United States (Delaney Strouse)
World Ranking: 51
Saturday, March 14 at 9 p.m. ET
Team Einarson will be back on the ice a few hours after their game against Sweden to take on Team Delaney Strouse of the United States.
Led by their 25-year-old Michigan skip, Team Strouse defeated Team Elizabeth Cousins in the final of the United States Women’s Curling Championship to win their first national title.
Tabitha Peterson won the last three women’s championships in the United States but wasn’t competing this year after finishing fourth at Milano Cortina 2026.
Strouse earned a bronze medal at the 2022 World Junior Championship.
Aside from their run at nationals, Team Strouse is 19-20 on the season and has missed the playoffs in six of nine events.
Einarson’s rink will be the favourites on paper as the vastly more experienced team.
Game 3 – China (Rui Wang)
World Ranking: 16
Sunday, March 15 at 3:30 p.m. ET
China’s Rui Wang finished third at last year’s World Women’s Curling Championship in South Korea.
Wang and her team from Beijing are coming off a disappointing Olympics, finishing tied for last with a 2-7 record.
This will be the seventh worlds appearance for 31-year-old Wang.
Team Wang’s lone win this season came way back in October at the Pan Continental Curling Championship as they own a 33-24 record heading into Calgary.
This squad can hang with the best of them when they’re on their game as seen in their podium finish from a season ago but aren’t the most consistent team on Tour.
We’ll have to see which version shows up in Calgary.
Game 4 – Denmark (Madeleine Dupont)
World Ranking: 12
Monday, March 16 at 4 p.m. ET
Madeleine Dupont, 38, is set to compete in her 17th World Women’s Curling Championship, including the seventh straight.
The Danes are one of four teams set to compete at the women’s worlds after attending the Olympics. In her fourth Winter Games, Dupont went 4-5 and missed the playoffs.
Dupont and her rink from Hvidovre are having an excellent season record-wise, sitting at 62-22 entering Calgary with four event wins and 12 playoff appearances across 15 total events played.
Denmark missed the playoffs at last year’s worlds with a 5-7 record. Dupont finished second at the 2007 World Women’s Curling Championship and third in 2009.
There’s a good chance the veteran Dupont is in the mix for the playoffs by week’s end.
Game 5 – Italy (Stefania Constantini)
World Ranking: 30
Tuesday, March 17 at 11a.m. ET
No rest for the weary.
Stefania Constantini just can’t stay away from major curling competitions.
The 26-year-old skip was one of Italy’s headlining athletes for Milano Cortina 2026 as she competed in both the mixed-doubles event, winning the bronze medal with partner Amos Mosaner, as well as women’s four-person curling.
Constantini brings along the same foursome to Calgary that went a disappointing 2-7 in Cortina.
Team Constantini, once a very promising team in women’s curling, has not played well this season. They’ve dropped to 30th in the world with a 31-28 record and made the playoffs in only five of 12 events in 2025-26.
This will be Constantini sixth straight appearance at the women’s worlds. Her best showing came in 2024 when her rink went 10-2 in the round robin before finishing fourth. Italy missed the playoffs last year with an 4-8 record.
Amid a trying and long season, the Italians may be in tough to reach the podium for the first time at the World Women’s Curling Championship.
Game 6 – Switzerland (Xenia Schwaller)
World Ranking: 6
Tuesday, March 17 at 9 p.m. ET
Canada ends a two-game day on Tuesday against maybe the best young skip in women’s curling.
Xenia Schwaller has catapulted her Swiss side to No. 6 in the world this season after winning four events, including a national championship.
Team Schwaller, featuring third Selina Gafner, second Fabienne Rieder and lead Selina Rychiger, own a 61-27 record and qualified for the playoffs in 13 of 15 events, including three of the five Grand Slams.
At the Swiss playdowns in late February, Schwaller and her well-rested team took full advantage of a likely exhausted Team Silvana Tirinzoni, who were just days removed from settling for silver at the Olympics.
In the best-of-three final, Team Schwaller dropped Game 1 before winning the next two to punch their ticket to Calgary for their first appearance at the World Women’s Curling Championship.
Tirinzoni, 46, has captained Switzerland at every world championship since 2019.
Just two years ago, Schwaller’s rink won a World Junior Championship in Lohja, Finland. They haven’t slowed down since and have a real chance to capture Switzerland’s 11th gold medal at the World Women’s Curling Championship.
Switzerland has won eight times since 2012.
Game 7 – Türkiye (Dilşat Yıldız)
World Ranking: 37
Wednesday, March 18 at 11 a.m. ET
Dilşat Yıldız is returning to the World Women’s Curling Championship for a fifth time.
The 29-year-old Turkish skip has posted back-to-back 3-9 records after going 6-6 in 2023, her best performance at the world championship.
Team Yıldız is 32-26 on the season and won the Prague Ladies International in September. They went 5-4 at the European Curling Championship and dropped the Sundbyberg Open final to Denmark’s Team Madeleine Dupont.
Making the six-team playoffs will be a tall order for Türkiye, but they’ve given contending teams good games at this event in recent years and Calgary should be more of the same.
Game 8 – Scotland (Fay Henderson)
World Ranking: 40
Wednesday, March 18 at 9 p.m. ET
Fay Henderson is skipping Scotland at the World Women’s Curling Championship for the second time and first since 2022.
Henderson’s squad went 0-12 at that world championship as they were forced to forfeit amid a COVID-19 outbreak on their team.
The 24-year-old native of Dumfries, Scotland served as the alternate for Sophie Jackson’s British rink at Milano Cortina 2026.
Team Henderson is two games under the .500 mark (23-25) this season, highlighted by winning the Scottish Curling Championship in late February.
The Scots need a lot to go right for them to qualify for the playoffs in Calgary.
Game 9 – South Korea (Eunji Gim)
World Ranking: 4
Thursday, March 19 at 11 a.m. ET
South Korea has never won a gold medal in ether men’s or women’s curling at the world championship.
Eunji Gim and her Uijeongbu rink might have the best chance of snapping that drought.
Team Gim enter Calgary ranked fourth in the world after a strong Grand Slam campaign, highlighted by semifinal appearances at the Masters and Players’ Championship.
They went 5-4 at the Olympics, just missing the playoffs, and own a total record of 50-24 in 2025-26.
This will be Gim’s seventh appearance at the World Women’s Curling Championship with the 36-year-old’s best finish coming in 2024 when she took bronze.
Eunjung Kim’s loss to Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni in the 2022 final was South Korea’s best result in tournament history.
Team Gim has been ranked in the top 10 for the past few seasons and could be ready to take the next major step with a gold medal finish in Calgary.
Canada will have their hands full in this one.
Game 10 – Norway (Torild Bjørnstad)
World Ranking: 29
Thursday, March 19 at 9 p.m. ET
The next two games are ones Canada and Team Einarson might have to win if they find themselves in the thick of the playoff race at this point of the tournament.
Canada takes on 29th ranked Norway on Thursday night, led by Torhild Bjørnstad.
Team Bjørnstad is having a nice season, posting a solid 32-8 record across seven relatively small events, winning once and making the playoffs each time.
Bjørnstad doesn’t play on the Grand Slam circuit, so her rink doesn’t have many reps against the some of the best in women’s curling. They dropped the Oslo Cup final to Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller in August and the Mercure Perth Masters final to Denmark’s Team Madeleine Dupont in January.
Bjørnstad won back-to-back bronze medals at the World Junior Curling Championship in 2023 and 2024 before missing the playoffs in 2025.
They were selected to represent Norway at the women’s worlds despite falling to Marianne Rørvik in the final of the national championship.
Rørvik has skipped Norway at the past four women’s worlds, finishing second in 2023.
Game 11 – Australia (Helen Williams)
World Ranking: 89
Friday, March 20 at 4 p.m. ET
Australia is set to make their debut at the World Women’s Curling Championship as the lowest-ranked team in the field.
Originally from Scotland, 53-year-old Helen Williams and her Melbourne foursome qualified for the world championship after finishing sixth at the 2025 Pan Continental Curling Championship with a 2-5 record.
Team Williams went 1-6 at the Olympic Qualification Event in mid-December.
Canada will be the heavy favorites in this matchup as the Aussies will finish near the bottom of the table.
Game 12 – Japan (Satsuki Fujisawa)
World Ranking: 9
Friday, March 20 at 9 p.m. ET
Satsuki Fujisawa is returning to the women’s worlds for a fourth time and first since 2023.
The 2022 Olympic silver medallists broke onto the international curling scene at the 2016 World Women’s Curling Championship in Swift Current, Sask., when they made a run all the way to the championship game before losing to Switzerland’s Team Binia Feltscher.
Curling fans fell in love with their positive attitude and energetic play on the ice. They continue to have that same infectious energy 10 years later and will be contenders for the podium in Calgary.
Einarson eliminated Fujisawa in the playoffs in 2023, the last time these two skips squared off against each other on the world stage.
Team Fujisawa also owns a bronze medal from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing.
The 34-year-old Fujisawa has led her rink to a 55-30 record this season with two August wins in Japan on their card. On the Grand Slam circuit, Team Fujisawa made the playoffs in two of five events, losing the Canadian Open final to Team Silvana Tirinzoni.
They didn’t have their best stuff at the Japanese Olympic Trials as Team Sayaka Yoshimura represented the nation in Italy.
The round-robin finale between Canada and Japan should be a close game as both sides have lofty expectations heading into the women’s worlds.
