Icy Contrasts at World Women’s Curling

The contrast between the haves and the have-nots are stark at the 2023 world women’s curling championship.

First, the haves. Switzerland is rolling along, with surprising Italy in second place.

The relentless Swiss, skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni, are looking to cap a fairly successful first season for the new squad. Victory at Sandviken, Sweden would mean the third consecutive crown won by Tirinzoni and fourth thrower Alina Pätz.

The Arau foursome are enjoying a 7-0 won/loss record, and they’ve won 28 world championship matches in a row.

Meanwhile, Italy’s Stefania Constantini moved to 6-2 and second place after a 7-3 win over Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa. The loss dropped the Japanese to a 3-5 mark.

Canada’s Kerri Einarson fell 8-3 to Germany’s Daniela Jentsch, which puts both countries into a third-place tie with Norway’s Marianne Roervik.

The surprises continue with Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg. Her host team sits at 4-3 alongside Korea’s Seungyoun Ha, who was set to face off against Canada on Wednesday evening.

USA’s Tabitha Peterson is at 4-4.

With the exception of Switzerland, the traditional world curling powers are clearly struggling with the playing conditions in Sandviken.

“(It’s) frustrating,” said Canada coach Reid Carruthers. “The first end it looked like we had a deuce set up and I feel like we just didn’t quite pick up on the ice enough.

“It’s different than what it was. It wasn’t bad, but it was different. We weren’t as sharp as we should have been.”

Carruthers had a key message for his charges between Wednesday’s games, and it echoed a comment by Einarson earlier in the week.

“Believing our eyes,” Carruthers said. “We’ll have to chat a little bit about how that game went and we’ll have to come out sharper against Korea or else we’ll be in trouble.”

Conversely, teams like Italy and Germany are now raving about the playing conditions, which most observers have labelled tricky at the very least.

“The way we managed the ice today was very good,” Jentsch said. “We found the spots to help us curl and where we could take the runs.

“We were on top of our game today and I knew I could play any shot. We are having a rollercoaster week so we’ll see what happens next.”

“The ice is fantastic for us,” said Constantini, who won Olympic gold in mixed doubles at Beijing 2022. “It is a pleasure to play against these tough teams, especially on ice like that.”