Last Olympic Curling Gasps in Kelowna

This week marks another Olympic Qualifying Event, the third in history, this time being played in Kelowna, B.C.

Kelowna was the site of the first-ever Pan Continental Championships, an event which has now gone the way of the dodo bird.

Fans might remember that one due to a couple of bizarre occurrences: first, Canadian broadcaster TSN bailed out of coverage after the opening weekend for technical reasons (and they never went back to that event) and then Canada skip Brad Gushue tore a strip off event managers World Curling for, well, many things.

This quadrennial event is running smoothly. It’s being held in the city’s mammoth 12-sheet curling club, which allows for on-ice bleacher seating to be installed. World Curling is also hosting a large contingent of mixed doubles teams – 16 in total – that will battle for Olympic berths after the men’s and women’s fours divisions are completed.

Last year’s OQE was held at a multipurpose facility in the Netherlands which also housed a speed skating rink. That wasn’t the only strangeness – remember the ballyhoo of dropped NBC coverage due to a local sponsor arrangement with... a sex toy supply chain?

Stay with me now. There’s a connection to this year’s event, as one of the Philippines men’s players used to own a sex toy shop (he sold it).

That team, skipped by ex-Swiss national competitor Marc Pfister, has a 3-2 won/loss record and need to finish in the top three (out of eight teams) to make it to the playoffs. From there, the top two finishers battle for one of the last two available berths into February’s Olympics, while the loser of that game takes on the No. 3 team for the final berth.

China’s men, a team that raised our editor’s ire at the last world championship, have clinched the first men’s playoff berth at 5-0. One wonders if the on-ice officials, and not just China’s opponents, are watching them closely.

USA’s Danny Casper, who upended John Shuster a month ago, is in second spot at 4-1. Two other teams are tied with Philippines at 3-2 – Japan’s Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi and Wouter Goesgens of the Netherlands.

On the women’s side, Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura has performed head and shoulders above the rest of the field, and her squad has clinched the playoffs at 5-0. Norway’s Marianne Roervik is 4-1 while Germany (Kim Sutor) and USA (Tabitha Peterson) are both at 3-2.

Tab has been under the weather – she missed one game entirely – and is reportedly attempting a comeback. As the Brits might say, it’s squeaky bum time for America’s Olympic women’s fours hopes; they’ve got critical final games against Türkiye and Germany today to finish the round robin.

The men’s division has a single game today and finishes the round robin on Wednesday.

The mixed doubles OQE gets underway on Saturday.

And that, dear friends, will close and lock Olympic curling qualifying for another quadrennial, with only the Games themselves left to play.

Coverage is available on World Curling’s The Curling Channel.