The World Curling Federation has released the draw for the Curling Competition at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

The draw is available via direct download at the WCF homepage, within the posting dated July 28.

Competition begins February 16 with three draws scheduled daily – alternating between men’s and women’s play – up to February 23.

Canada’s women’s team, which will be determined on December 12 in Edmonton, opens at 14:00 against Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott, the only curling athlete in history with two Olympic medals (silver in both 2002 and 2006).

Canada continues with matches against Japan on Feb. 17, Germany on Feb. 18 and Denmark’s Angelina Jensen, the 2007 world finalist, on Feb. 19.

Canada’s major crunch comes on the final three days of the round robin.

On Feb. 21, Canada battles 2003 world champion Debbie McCormick of the United States and, later, defending world champion Bingyu Wang of China.

On Feb. 22, their opponent is the defending Olympic champion and two-time world champion Anette Norberg of Sweden.

On Feb. 23, the Canadian women face another two matches, against Great Britain – most likely skipped by three-time world junior champion Eve Muirhead – followed by the round robin finale against 2006 European champions Russia.

The Canadian women do not compete on Saturday, February 20.

Canada’s men’s team, which will be determined on December 13 in Edmonton, opens with two matches on Feb. 16, against Norway (most likely 2008 and 2009 world bronze medallist Thomas Ulsrud) and Germany’s Andy Kapp, a two-time Olympian and multiple world finalist.

Following a full day off on February 17, the Canadians face two next-day opponents: Sweden (most likely the defending world university champions skipped by Niklas Edin) and then France’s Thomas Dufour.

On Feb. 19, Canada challenges Denmark’s Ulrik Schmidt.

On Feb. 20, Canada faces Great Britain’s David Murdoch, the two-time and defending world champion, in the evening draw. Murdoch defeated Canada’s Kevin Martin three consecutive times to win last April’s 2009 Ford World Men’s Championship in Moncton, and as reported by The Curling News, has been training specifically to defeat Canada for Olympic gold at Vancouver.

Canada then battles Switzerland on Feb. 21. The Swiss defeated Canada for Olympic gold at Nagano in 1998 and captured bronze at Salt Lake in 2002, and also scored demonstration gold at the 1992 Games in Albertville.

On Feb. 22 the Canadians meet John Shuster of the United States. Shuster was a member of the 2006 U.S. Olympic curling team, skipped by Pete Fenson, which scored the bronze medal.

On Feb. 23, Canada concludes the round robin with an afternoon match against China’s Fengchun Wang, the surprise fourth-place finisher at the 2008 world championship. This will mark the fourth consecutive day in which the Canadian men’s team competes only once.

February 24 is reserved for tiebreakers with the semifinals scheduled for February 25.

The Women’s Final takes place February 26 and the Men’s Final on February 27.

Canada has never missed the podium in Olympic medal-status competition, winning gold in 1998 (women’s) and 2006 (men’s) while scoring two silver medals in men’s play and two bronze medals in women’s play.

Venue photo by the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation

Lots today. There’s a big Ontario player meeting tomorrow; some Seinfeld mischief; Jennifer Jones in Guelph; many hugs in Moncton; a Polish flame; Soo tickets already; the death of Gordie Weber and more.

But first – this nice photo of proud papas Neil Harrison (far left) and Paul Savage (far right) and their sons, Sean Harrison (inside left) and Brad Savage.

Sean toils for Team Chris Gardner, a fine young squad competing at the 2009 Ontario Tankard which is also off to China very shortly, for the 2009 Winter Universiade, otherwise known as the World University Games.

Brad throws lead for Team Peter Corner, currently in second place and confirmed for the Tankard playoffs this weekend.

The original Harrison and Savage, of course, are curling legends… and their old skipper, Eddie “The Wrench” Werenich was also at Woodstock yesterday.

You can read this story and much more by downloading the various editions of the daily event newsletter, the Bull Roar, from this webpage.

And don’t forget the first of our huge, multi-part interviews with The Wrench which is in the current February print edition of The Curling News. It’s typically controversial stuff, and you can’t read it online, so why not subscribe?

Believe us, you’ll be glad you did.

Anyway, this continues yesterday’s father/daughter theme starring Russ and Ashley Howard. And, although we’ve told you this already – come on, people – we are compelled to point out that still yet another Howard, Scott Howard, lost the Ontario junior men’s championship final on the same day his dad – Glenn Howard – lost the Casino Rama skins final to Randy Ferbey. You can see a photo of Scott Howard in action in the story link, too.

And now for the hard news.

The Ontario Curling Association will be present – with no less than six high-powered suits in attendance – at an Open Forum meeting with athletes Saturday morning in Woodstock.

The goal is to attempt to thrash out long-discussed changes to Ontario’s archaic playdown system.

The meeting is no surprise. The usually disorganized athletes have been united in recent weeks, and from the OCA perspective, the absence of a fellow like Wayne Middaugh – who wilfully chose to compete in a Grand Slam event instead of his last chance provincial playdown – tends to get people’s attention. As in fans, sponsors, et cetera.

“Let’s not do (zones and regional qualifying) in curling clubs in January on crappy ice with nobody watching,” says a rather blunt Richard Hart in today’s Toronto Star. “Bring all the best teams to one location at the provincial and then bring the fans in to watch it. It’s a great show.”

“Love him or hate him, Wayne should be here,” said Peter Steski. “Everybody wins if you have the best teams here – the curlers win, the OCA wins, the host committee wins, the fans win.

“I don’t see how anyone can lose.”

And what is the OCA attitude heading into the meeting?

“We don’t really care what the format is as long as the host committee’s needs are met and the sponsors’ needs are met,” said OCA exec Doug Bakes.

Okay, then… that certainly sounds promising.

Incidentally, the original version of this story, located here, concludes with more Steski hijinks – make that George Costanza of Seinfeld fame – and a washroom incident starring the event mascot.

Must be a Friday.

And on that note, here’s your Friday linkfest …

• Moncton celebrated 60 “sweeps” before the Ford Worlds yesterday. The event included an outdoor rink set up right in front of city hall and the World Curling Federation mascot, Skip, engaged in a massive hug-a-thon …

• Speaking of outdoor curling, you can do that tomorrow at Winterfest in Surrey, British Columbia …

• Jennifer Jones did her corporate/charity thing yesterday in Guelph, Ontario …

• Chelsea Carey is 4-0 in Manitoba STOH play, and we like the cool “downtown” squad photos on her team website …

• Pat Simmons and Joel Jordison are headed for an A-side showdown at the Saskatchewan men’s Tankard …

• Given the Canadian Juniors currently going on, you might expect that a new website which focusses on junior and university curling would be very active this week. You would be correct …

• Speaking of youths, Trent University is hosting OUA curling action this weekend… and here are last year’s award winners …

• Still with young people, the big flame in Poland has been lit for the 2009 European Youth Olympic festival. Yes, it will feature curling, but more on that later …

• Early bird tickets are on sale for the 2010 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario… and while CCA’s Warren Hansen notes that “Right now, people in the Sault are the only ones aware of it,”… uh, whoops, it looks like we’ve just taken the news around the world!

Anyway, be sure to note the early bird event dates, due to the Vancouver Olympics: January 30 to February 7 …

• DID YOU KNOW: that just a few days after dumping two-time world junior champ Charley Thomas from his men’s team, Calgary’s Chris Schille won a WCT-E event at Prague, in the Czech Republic? Well, now you do …

• In this nice piece by Cookie Gilchrist, we discover that legendary Labatt sponsor liaison Gord Weber has passed away. Weber was instrumental in delivering Labatt Beweries into the Brier sponsorship in 1980, and was also a big booster of other sport and community endeavours …

• The Associated Press has picked up on Pete Fenson’s defeat in the race for the U.S. 2010 Olympic berth, and scored some quotes from the disappointed skip …

• Awright you Slave Lakers! Lots of pics and a video accompany this story on their men’s bonspiel …

• Spain has their national mixed and mixed doubles playdowns this weekend …

• Come on Robert, your pal Arnold expects more than this …

• And finally, more images of Bob’s Birthday Cake, posted to a different blog. Geez, this guy is pretty popular. Or perhaps it’s the cake …

We’ve got stuff on the Ontario men’s Tankard, Brazil, Teams of the Year nods, the Jolly Grain Giant and more, but first …

The new school curling program Rocks and Rings was launched Monday morning at Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park, merely the largest elementary school in North America with a stunning 1,900 students.

Attendees included Ontario Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne, chief sponsor Ian Cunningham of Capital One, Greg Stremlaw and Fran Todd of the Canadian Curling Association, Leigh Armstrong from associate sponsor The Dominion of Canada, representatives from the Ontario Curling Association, various media (including The Curling News), ace curling photog Anil Mungal (image above) and even a film crew from TSN.

But the real stars of the show were the kids… but of course. The program instructors had them bouncing off the walls with excitement, even standing in a special circle to do their “happy dance” when they managed to draw the rings. We particularly liked the session where a small army of kids, each clutching a pint-sized brush, responded to green (“Hurry”) and red (“Whoa”) flashcards shaped like a stop sign.

It was wild, and noisy, and the purpose is crystal clear: get kids moving, and give them an introduction to curling they might not otherwise receive.

“For years, curling has been under-represented in large urban markets and inner-city jurisdictions,” said Stremlaw.

“This program goes after the root of this problem by allowing the sport of curling to be exposed to school children throughout the Greater Toronto Area and, in due course, other major urban centres.”

It was great fun to see all the formal speakers address the children, who sat cross-legged in front of the podium before they engaged in their “gym floor” curling sessions.

“There’s a guy who works in our office who loves to curl,” Minister Wynn quipped to the kids. “I think he would rather curl than come to work.”

That fellow, who was present, is Ken Thurston, a Senior Policy Advisor to the minister who has curled for no less than 40 years.

“Watching the students made it evident that Rocks and Rings is a fun and motivational way to build physical activity into daily routines,” said Thurston.

“The equipment is fairly simple, but the potential is great. I see this as a great way to get more volunteers into our schools – including parents, grandparents and community members who are fellow curling enthusiasts.”

Rocks and Rings maestro Chad McMullan was there too – of course – and said there has been great response to the program, which targets 30 schools in the greater Toronto area (GTA) through the remainder of the curling season.

“The kids and teachers absolutely love it and all the while we help address several of the challenges the sport faces,” said McMullan.

“We’ve had requests from schools and instructors in Vancouver, Kelowna, London, Halifax, Ottawa, the list goes on.”

After the launch, McMullan drove straight to Woodstock in time for his first match at the Ontario TSC Stores Tankard. And speaking of Woodstock, here cometh the links …

• Here’s Tankard competitor Peter Steski with a zinger about his Brier-competitor grandfather, the legendary Rudy Steski. And we thought Peteski saves his best stuff for TSN’s Off The Record!

Speaking of Steski, the team that is actually now skipped by Heath McCormick held a 6-2 lead over Rob Lobel in Monday night’s seventh end… whereupon the Lobel brothers scored two, stole four in the eighth, dropped a deuce in the ninth and then scored another four coming home. That’s a surrender of 10 points in three of the last four ends for an epic 12-8 loss and an 0-2 start (McCormick is now 1-2). Yoinks.

Meanwhile, Glenn Howard ran into a Joe Frans roadblock last night but, hey, all is not lost… Howard is still leading his local Midland Major League, and if we remember correctly, that’s the one where he plays with his wife and both Wayne and Sherry Middaugh …

Hey… where’s Pat Ryan? Well, given the initial flurry of excitement over a possible Ryan appearance this week, we must point out that this chance is now remote, seeing that Peter Corner welcomed his second child into the world last week.

By the way, you can also follow the Tankard action via this blog and also a photo gallery… geez, nice broom bag, Savs …

• Speaking of Sherry, it’s bad enough she made an early exit at last week’s Ontario STOH… but couldn’t her own hometown newspaper find a better photo of her? Sheesh …

• New Brunswick youngster Andrea Kelly is back in the Scotties show, after a 5-4 win over an even younger Mary Jane McGuire in the provincial final… and play is finally underway in Manitoba to declare the final STOH team for Victoria …

• All we’ve seen from Brazilian media so far is this columnist’s blog page, which does have 14 comments posted to it. The World Curling Federation has a summary report here, plus a photo from the action. The story goes on to tell the tale of the teams that have qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Colorado in a couple of weeks, and one big name that’s missing is Pete Fenson …

• Speaking of the WCF, a couple of weeks after their story on the death of legendary curling builder Elizabeth Paterson-Brown, this piece has now appeared in Edinburgh’s Evening News …

• Here’s another fellow – U.S. sports marketing pundit Joe Favorito – who approves of USA Curling’s recent promotional efforts …

• DID YOU KNOW: that the Saskatchewan men start today, and the Jolly Grain Giant is trying to turn back the clock? And that Newfoundland and Labrador, featuring Brad Gushue, started yesterday …?

• Remember the Yukon’s Orest Peech? Well, his 0-11 record at the 1999 Brier actually did him some good, once …

• In this story on the Vancouver 2010 curling legacy, the CCA’s Warren Hansen grumps about the 10,000-seat permanent venue that eventually became a 6,000-seat “multi-purpose community recreation centre” …

• Canada’s double world champions – Kevin Martin and Jennifer Jones – are both up for Team of the Year honours at the upcoming Canadian Sport Awards …

• mandy is raving about the illustrious language of curling, which includes her own impressive linguistics on the sport’s “enthusiastic stick-to-it-ive verve” and, of course, “the icy cool in your loins” …

• And finally… Happy Birthday Bob!

In this Friday installment we rail against curlers who wear black, set up the Canadian Juniors, test your curling mettle with a pop quiz, show you some Scottish stuff, rail against curlers who wear black, and amaze with a crazy eBay promotion. But first…

This is a big weekend for U.S. curling, Brazilian curling, and world curling in general. And it’s all going down in beautiful Bismarck, North Dakota, host city of the 2002 Ford Worlds, and in Green Bay, Wisconsin, just steps away from famous Lambeau Field, the home of the Packers.

To start things off, the big day has finally arrived… Friday night will see Brazil versus the United States, in game one of the best-of-five men’s challenge series for the final berth in the 2009 Ford Worlds in Moncton.

And none other than the famed New York Times ran a story – complete with some decent pics (like the one above) taken during one of Brazil’s recent training sessions in Quebec, Canada.

Of course, subscribers to the print edition of The Curling News saw a photo of the team way back in the November 2008 issue, after their appearance at the inaugural Team Glenn Howard Fantasy Curling Camp, which of course will be happening again this coming September. But we digress.

As the WCF announced earlier this month, 2007 world bronze medallist Todd Birr is the man in the hotseat for the United States. Birr is quoted in the Times story, but we also grabbed a fresh quote courtesy of USA Curling:

“We’re looking forward to representing the U.S. in this event, it’s something that’s been in the background for us all season long,” said Birr.

“Certainly we want to secure our spot at worlds, but beyond that it’s just such an honor to play in something this historic. It’s the first time the U.S. has been challenged at the men’s level, after all.”

Will any Brazilians make the long trek to the Dakotas to cheer on their team? Judging from the Brazilian fans we have seen at other sporting events – and we’re not just talking about futbol, either – we sure as heck hope so!

To follow the results, check the USA Curling website or the Gameday Scoreboard at CurlingZone. And check out this here blog, too… you never know what we might come up with through the weekend.

Secondly, Bismarck is also hosting the U.S. men’s national Challenge Round to declare the final four berths to the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team Trials for Curling next month in Colorado. Play started Wednesday and big names involved – that failed to make it straight to Denver – include 2006 Olympic bronze medallist Pete Fenson (currently 3-2), defending U.S. champ Craig Brown (3-1), perennial U.S. men’s runner-up Craig Disher (3-1), former Fenson Olympic teammate John Shuster (5-0) and former national champion Jason Larway (3-2).

That’s a murderer’s row of great teams, as witnessed by the struggles of of former Canadians – Brier competitor Brian Wight and TCN correspondent Matt Hames (with Brier competitor Dean Gemmell of The Curling Show on the front end) – who are both at 1-4.

Meanwhile, another ex-Canuck, former Canadian Junior finalist Greg Romaniuk out of Winnipeg, is the co-leader at 5-0.

Romaniuk is a big secret. When Canada’s Mark Johnson fled Edmonton for the U.S. he grabbed some press, and he grabbed some more when he qualified for Denver. But Romaniuk has had a better season stateside – he’s travelled extensively and won a tournament in Madison, Wisconsin – and now he’s off to a great start at the Challenge Round.

Pop quiz, hotshots… which junior skip did Romaniuk play for and in what year did they lose that Canadian junior final? And whom did they lose to? Anyone?

By the way, next month’s Olympic Team Trials will also decide the squads, both men and women, that will compete in this year’s world shootouts in Gangneung and Moncton… so Denver acts as a double championship.

Third – or is that fourth? – the women’s Challenge Round started up Thursday night in Green Bay. It’s a small field, with six teams fighting for four spots, and it features two-time U.S. junior champion Aileen Sormunen and former national champion Amy Wright, who were both at 1-0 at time of writing.

Fourth – er, fifth – a wild new curling promotion has been launched by Denver Sports and USA Curling. Believe it or not, you can bid, on the eBay auction site, to put your face on the button during the U.S. Olympic Trials.

With a minimum $1,150 bid, the “Buy The Button” auction allows the winners to have their face placed in the ice on the button, where it will remain throughout the competition. There are four such buttons available, and the winning bidders also receive 10 tickets to the women’s and men’s final matches on February 28 (10:00am and 3:00pm MST)

The auction runs from now through Wednesday, February 4. So click here if you don’t believe us!

Meanwhile…

• Speaking of the New York Times, can anyone tell us why they emailed us back in December seeking a photo of Joe Frans? They didn’t reply to our reply, so it’s all a mystery …

• Chery Bernard defeated Shannon Kleibrink to claim the first playoff spot in Alberta, and it’s down to three sqauds in Saskatchewan, with Stefanie Lawton leading the way …

• The M&M Meat Shops Canadian Juniors begins on Sunday in Salmon Arm, BC. Russ Howard will be there with TSN for the finals but he’s also on proud papa duty, as daughter Ashley is skipping Team New Brunswick. Ironically, Russ’ brother Glenn Howard has a son, Scott, who lost the Ontario junior men’s final to just miss out on qualifying.

Other names of note include, of course, defending women’s champion and world bronze medallist Kaitlyn Lawes of Manitoba, with a video of her winning shot located here.

There’s also stalwart skips Brett Gallant (for the men) and Erin Carmody (women) of Prince Edward Island.

But the women’s side is most intriguing. It says here that Lawes’ biggest challenges will come from Alberta’s Casey Scheidegger, who has Kalynn Park at third stone, and Ontario’s Rachel Homan, who is already a legend despite her debut appearance at the Juniors. Oh well… sitting 10th on the (adult) Canadian Team Rankings list for a spot into December’s Olympic Trials will do that for ya.

• A Canadian interloper named Kevin Koe has made the cover of the February Scottish Curler, and it must have something to do with the Albertans grabbing much of the moolah in Perth earlier this month …

• Speaking of Scotland, two-time and defending world junior champion skip Eve Muirhead – who graces the homepage of the 2009 World Juniors website – is more than just a fine on-ice shooter: she’s a damned fine golfer, and she’s Friday’s Local Hero, too …

• Numbers man Kevin Palmer has another installment of Curling with Math online …

• First it was British Columbia… then it was Ontario… now it’s Manitoba’s turn to discuss the restructuring of men’s curling in their province. The difference with Manitoba is that this back-and-forth, which has been noticed by The Curler, talks about much more than just the provincial-level teams; the plan is to give a boost to all grass roots areas …

• And finally, we liked this nice story from Al Cameron on what competitive curlers do with the mountain of jackets they amass during a career.

It turns out that Heather Rankin, who is wearing power orange (no photo, Al?) has the same colours as another competing team… and she blames Cameron for the duplication, telling him that he “wrote an article last year about everybody wearing black, and I found the most obnoxious colour I could find just to make you happy.”

This will be music to the ears of Bob Cowan, proprietor of that venerable Scottish Curler magazine and also the recent but already legendary Curling Today blog, who is on a one-man crusade to get curlers to just STOP WEARING BLACK… and we agree …