2021 World Men's Curling Championship


The 2021 World Men's Curling Championship was held from April 2 to 11 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Canada. The event was originally to be held in Ottawa, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the championship was moved to Calgary. The event was held in a bio-secure bubble at Canada Olympic Park, which also hosted all major Curling Canada championships leading up to the Worlds. All events were held behind closed doors with no spectators.
The 2021 championship fielded the largest number of teams in the history of the event, with fourteen total. Niklas Edin, skip of Team Sweden, and his third, Oskar Eriksson, won a record fifth career World Championship. The team, which also consisted of Rasmus Wranå and Christoffer Sundgren, won a record third straight championship. They defeated Team Scotland, skipped by Bruce Mouat in the final, 10–5. With the game tied at 5 in the ninth end, Edin made a double take out with the last rock of the end to score five. Down by 5 with just one end to go, Team Scotland then conceded the game. Switzerland, skipped by Peter de Cruz, won the bronze medal.
The championship served as one of two qualification events for curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The National Olympic Committees representing the top six finishers at the tournament qualified directly to the Olympic tournament. In order of ranking, this included Sweden, Great Britain, Switzerland, the ROC, the United States, and Canada. The remaining teams that had qualified for the 2020 or 2021 World Championships competed in the World Curling Federation's Olympic Qualification Event in December 2021 for the remaining three spots.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

On April 9, the World Curling Federation announced that a positive COVID-19 test had been recorded by a player on a non-playoff team, and that the second qualification match between the United States and Switzerland would be therefore be postponed. The World Curling Federation postponed all games scheduled for April 10 due to additional positive tests involving a member of a playoff team. There were three initial positives from players on non-playoff teams who were tested as part of the exit protocols, and four close contacts were also identified.
On April 11, following approval by Alberta Health Services, the World Curling Federation announced that play would resume, with all remaining games being played throughout the day. One playoff team member who had been fully vaccinated initially tested positive, but later tested negative and was cleared to participate in the playoffs. Enhanced biosecurity protocols were mandated for the remainder of the tournament, including additional tests before and after each game, and requiring masks to be worn on-ice. Canadian broadcaster TSN pulled its camera crew for the U.S./Switzerland match, and announced that the game would not be televised due to unspecified "COVID-19 issues"; the game was still broadcast via the WCF host feed.
On April 12, all four tests were deemed false positives following an extensive review by health authorities. Team USA third Christopher Plys announced on Twitter that he was the playoff-bound curler who had tested positive.

Qualification

The following nations qualified to participate in the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship:
Pursuant to a December 2020 ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Russia is prohibited from competing under its flag or any national symbols at any Olympic Games or world championships through December 16, 2022, and must compete neutrally. The World Curling Federation listed the Russian team as the abbreviation "RCF", for the Russian Curling Federation.
Means of qualificationVacanciesQualified
Host Nation1
Americas1
Europe8






Pacific-Asia2
World Rankings1 RCF
2020 World Qualification Event1
TOTAL14

World Ranking

The World Curling Federation World Ranking tracks and lists the success of all Member Associations.
Member AssociationsRankPoints
189.020
275.980
371.029
465.196
552.059
644.118
740.392
835.343
934.461
1024.520
RCF1119.412
1218.578
1318.358
1416.951

Teams

The teams are as follows:
Saville Community SC, Edmonton
Skip: Brendan Bottcher
Third: Darren Moulding
Second: Brad Thiessen
Lead: Karrick Martin
Alternate: Marc Kennedy
Harbin CC, Harbin
Skip: Zou Qiang
Third: Tian Jiafeng
Second: Wang Zhiyu
Lead: Xu Jingtao
Alternate: Han Peng
Gentofte CC, Gentofte &
Hvidovre CC, Hvidovre

Fourth: Mikkel Krause
Third: Tobias Thune
Skip: Mads Nørgård
Lead: Kasper Wiksten
Alternate: Oliver Rosenkrands Søe
Baden Hills G&CC, Füssen
Skip: Sixten Totzek
Third: Marc Muskatewitz
Second: Joshua Sutor
Lead: Dominik Greindl
Alternate: Klaudius Harsch
Torino-Pinerolo CC, Pinerolo &
Aeronautica Militare

Skip: Joël Retornaz
Third: Amos Mosaner
Second: Sebastiano Arman
Lead: Mattia Giovanella
Alternate: Fabio Ribotta
RCF
Tokoro CC, Tokoro
Skip: Yuta Matsumura
Third: Tetsuro Shimizu
Second: Yasumasa Tanida
Lead: Shinya Abe
Alternate: Kosuke Aita
CC PWA Zoetermeer, Zoetermeer
Fourth: Wouter Gösgens
Skip: Jaap van Dorp
Second: Laurens Hoekman
Lead: Carlo Glasbergen
Alternate: Tobias van den Hurk
Oppdal CC, Oppdal
Skip: Steffen Walstad
Third: Torger Nergård
Second: Markus Høiberg
Lead: Magnus Vågberg
Alternate: Eirik Mjøen
Adamant CC, Saint Petersburg
Skip: Sergey Glukhov
Third: Evgeny Klimov

Second: Dmitry Mironov

Lead: Anton Kalalb
Alternate: Daniil Goriachev
Gogar Park CC, Edinburgh
Skip: Bruce Mouat
Third: Grant Hardie
Second: Bobby Lammie
Lead: Hammy McMillan Jr.
Alternate: Ross Whyte
Uijeongbu CC, Uijeongbu
Skip: Jeong Yeong-seok
Third: Kim Jeong-min
Second: Park Se-won
Lead: Lee Jun-hyung
Alternate: Seo Min-guk
Karlstads CK, Karlstad
Skip: Niklas Edin
Third: Oskar Eriksson
Second: Rasmus Wranå
Lead: Christoffer Sundgren
Alternate: Daniel Magnusson
CC Genève, Geneva &
Interlaken CC, Interlaken

Fourth: Benoît Schwarz
Third: Sven Michel
Skip: Peter de Cruz
Lead: Valentin Tanner
Alternate: Pablo Lachat
Duluth CC, Duluth
Skip: John Shuster
Third: Chris Plys
Second: Matt Hamilton
Lead: John Landsteiner
Alternate: Colin Hufman

WCF ranking

Year to date World Curling Federation order of merit ranking for each team prior to the event. Rankings based on the 2019–20 season.
Nation RankPoints
4347.979
5343.005
8304.836
9289.136
16202.961
19181.864
28133.398
30130.346
32129.878
42106.111
RCF 44102.341
8852.322
12233.972
2757.268

Round-robin standings

Final round-robin standings
CountrySkip
Niklas Edin1121–010263594881389%21.83
Sergey Glukhov1120–110373604731883%24.41
John Shuster1039375555051184%33.89
Brendan Bottcher941–096755549121786%21.02
Bruce Mouat940–19568564881587%19.36
Peter de Cruz859072575161285%18.25
Joël Retornaz761–078644646131384%32.15
Steffen Walstad760–191775950101382%25.43
Yuta Matsumura67748545545883%36.91
Sixten Totzek498192505861180%53.87
Mads Nørgård310699544566977%59.96
Jaap van Dorp2111–1669947532981%33.15
Jeong Yeong-seok2111–15311039558478%33.75
Zou Qiang2111–1589647564780%42.55

Pos.CountryRecord
49–4
142–11
113–10
104–9
77–6
96–7
122–11
87–6
2 11–2
59–4
132–11
111–2
68–5
310–3

Round-robin results

All times listed in Mountain Daylight Time.

Draw 1

''Friday, April 2, 9:00 am''

Draw 2

''Friday, April 2, 2:00 pm''

Draw 3

''Friday, April 2, 7:00 pm''

Draw 4

''Saturday, April 3, 9:00 am''

Draw 5

''Saturday, April 3, 2:00 pm''

Draw 6

''Saturday, April 3, 7:00 pm''

Draw 7

''Sunday, April 4, 9:00 am''

Draw 8

''Sunday, April 4, 2:00 pm''

Draw 9

''Sunday, April 4, 7:00 pm''

Draw 10

''Monday, April 5, 9:00 am''

Draw 11

''Monday, April 5, 2:00 pm''

Draw 12

''Monday, April 5, 7:00 pm''

Draw 13

''Tuesday, April 6, 9:00 am''

Draw 14

''Tuesday, April 6, 2:00 pm''

Draw 15

''Tuesday, April 6, 7:00 pm''

Draw 16

''Wednesday, April 7, 9:00 am''

Draw 17

''Wednesday, April 7, 2:00 pm''

Draw 18

''Wednesday, April 7, 7:00 pm''

Draw 19

''Thursday, April 8, 9:00 am''

Draw 20

''Thursday, April 8, 2:00 pm''

Draw 21

''Thursday, April 8, 7:00 pm''

Draw 22

''Friday, April 9, 9:00 am''

Draw 23

''Friday, April 9, 2:00 pm''

Playoffs

Qualification Game 1

''Friday, April 9, 7:00 pm''

Qualification Game 2

''Sunday, April 11, 11:00 am''

Semifinals

''Sunday, April 11, 4:00 pm''

Bronze medal game

''Sunday, April 11, 9:00 pm''

Final

''Sunday, April 11, 9:00 pm''

Statistics

Top 5 player percentages

Final round robin percentages

Perfect games

Minimum 10 shots thrown
PlayerTeamPositionShotsOpponent
Lee Jun-hyungLead14 RCF
Grant HardieThird14
Sebastiano ArmanSecond20
Brendan BottcherSkip12
Christoffer SundgrenLead12
Tetsuro ShimizuThird18
Amos MosanerThird16
Bruce MouatSkip18
Valentin TannerLead16
Christoffer SundgrenLead10

Awards

The awards were as follows:
Collie Campbell Memorial Award