Canada wins gold at World Women's Curling Championship with victory over Switzerland
Rachel Homan's team wins Canada's first women's world title since 2018.
After an undefeated charge to the Scotties Tournament of Hearts title last month, Rachel Homan and her rink out of the Ottawa Curling Club can now also call themselves world champions once again.
A 7-5 win over Silvana Tirinzoni’s Swiss team at Centre 200 in Sydney, Nova Scotia on Sunday night saw Canada reach the top step of the World Women's Curling Championship podium for the first time since 2018 — when Jennifer Jones led Canada to gold in North Bay, Ontario.
With the win, Canada ended the run of four consecutive world titles for Tirinzoni and her Switzerland dynasty, who earlier in the week had their 42-game winning streak at the world championships ended by Canada during the round robin.
Canada’s team was made up of skip Rachel Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, and lead Sarah Wilkes — along with alternate Rachelle Brown and coach Don Bartlett. Switzerland’s team featured skip Silvana Tirinzoni, fourth Alina Pätz, second Selina Witschonke, and lead Carole Howald, with alternate Stefanie Berset.
Longtime teammates Homan and Miskew pick up their second world title together after previously winning in 2017 in Beijing, but it’s a first for Fleury, Wilkes, and Brown.
Canada opened the game with hammer, and drew to the button with the final rock of the first end — scraping by a Swiss rock to pick up a single point, which the boisterous pro-Canadian crowd enjoyed. Switzerland responded by picking up two in the second end, after Homan’s last rock was left uncovered, leaving Alina Pätz a hit to give her team the lead.
Facing two Swiss rocks in the third end, Homan was forced to draw with the last rock, and picked out the four-foot ring to earn a single point and tie it up. With an open hit for two points after Homan’s final rock of the fourth end didn’t slide as far as it needed to, Switzerland continued to pile on the pressure, and took advantage for two more points and a 4-2 lead.
At the end of the fifth end, three mistakes by the Swiss curlers gave Homan an easy hit for two points, which she executed to tie the game at 4-4 entering the break.
The sixth end went by quickly and was blanked, as was the seventh. Switzerland was happy to hold onto the hammer and put the pressure on Canada as the tail end of the match approached. Canada was more clinical in the eighth end, sitting four rocks in scoring position before Pätz drew with her final rock to pick up one and regain the lead for Switzerland — giving Canada the hammer for the ninth.
Homan made an inch-perfect double in the ninth end to leave three rocks in scoring position, but Pätz again took care of business and removed two of them with a double hit. Canada could have simply drawn for two points, but decided to try and play a split with a rock at the top of the rings for three.
Homan perfectly tapped that rock into scoring position and the shooter curled into the rings as well, giving Canada a 7-5 lead after nine ends.
Rachel Homan’s split for three points in the ninth end. (Video via Devin Heroux on X)
After Switzerland came up short with Pätz’s penultimate throw in the tenth and final end, all Homan had to do was set up a high guard to prevent a shot for two points to tie the game, and she did. The two sides shook hands to end the game before Switzerland could attempt their final throw.
The clinical end to the match from Canada made all the difference after a first half of the game where they were fighting to stay in it.
The final shot of the match, which secured Canada’s victory. (Video via TSN on X)
The win ends what is undoubtedly of the all-time great seasons by a Canadian team.
Team Homan’s season record was a remarkable 62-6, and they had an outstanding 24-1 combined record at the Scotties and Worlds. They played in nine events in the 2023-24 season, winning seven of them. With a top-six finish at worlds, they have also automatically qualified for the 2025 Canadian Olympic trials.
Their lone loss in the past 25 matches came to Gim Eun-ji’s South Korean team in the final match of the round robin at the world championships. South Korea, who will be hosting the 2025 worlds, beat Italy 6-3 earlier on Sunday to win the bronze medal.
Homan and Miskew were named tournament all-stars at skip and second, respectively, along with Sweden's Sara McManus at third, and Switzerland’s Carole Howald at lead.
The world men's curling championship begins on Saturday in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Canada will be represented by Brad Gushue’s Brier winning team, looking for Canada’s first men’s world title since Team Gushue themselves won it all in Edmonton in 2017.
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