USA’s Welling Wins Second Term at World Curling

World Curling Federation president Beau Welling has won reelection as president of the global curling organization.

The 55-year-old golf architect defeated a challenge from former two-time World Curling vice-president Hugh Millikin of Australia at today’s World Curling Congress vote in Bratislava, Slovakia. 

It was a solid victory for the American, who scored a three-quarters majority of the vote.

Millikin, 69, was first elected to the board in 2014 and departed two years ago at the Congress in Montreal.

He is credited with shepherding mixed doubles into prominence at the Olympic Games and for dealing head-on with the Broomgate scandal of 2015, which could have threatened the existence of the sport within the Olympic movement.

World Curling has seen its primary source of funding – quadrennial payouts from the International Olympic Committee – steadily drop since Beijing 2022.

When coupled with escalating costs and a fair to weak portfolio of sponsorship entities, World Curling’s bottom line is red in colour.

The differences between the two candidates was revealed in their candidacy videos.

Welling’s effort featured multiple still images of the leader at competitions and meetings around the world, and at the recent Cortina Games with high-ranking Olympic executive board members, including president Kristy Covington.

Millikin’s video was stark, with the candidate standing in front of a wood background. A single font panel appeared midway through.

Both Welling and Millikin spoke of continuing to increase curling’s profile within the Olympic family and of the desperate need to change what has become a dismal financial outlook.

“Over the current Olympic cycle, World Curling has incurred substantial losses,” said Millikin. “Costs continue to rise, our largest funding source has declined in real value, and the outlook for the next cycle shows little improvement.

“The current situation is not sustainable.”

Welling’s four-year reign hasn’t been free of controversy. In addition to the rise of Broomgate 2.0 in 2025 and the Olympic finger-poke debacle from last February, a Chinese men’s team openly cheated at a recent world championship… and got away with it.

Welling’s video message to voting delegates pointed to his accomplishments before offering a frank assessment of what is needed moving forward.

“It is imperative that we increase our financial stability,” said Welling. “No one is happy with the financial results of the past year. We have to become more entrepreneurial and we have to balance our budgets. 

“We can monetize our events much better, (there’s) no doubt our commercial potential has not been fully realized. We must look at a new sponsorship strategy and be prepared to ask for the value that our sport is actually worth.”

Welling closed his presentation with a heartfelt plea.

“I’m very proud to believe that I have truly helped advance the perception of curling at the IOC. I’m viewed as one that is respected, I’m viewed as a leader, I’m viewed as one that’s very forward looking. It’s going to be important, more than ever, for us to continue to have strong representation at the IOC. I think its of paramount importance that I continue to represent us with all this change that’s going on in the Olympic movement. 

“I’m prepared to do that; I’m totally committed to doing that. This sport means the world to me.”

In other elections/announcements: 

• Scotland’s Rob Niven was a first-ballot winner for director. He was first elected in 2021.

• Karen Wauters of Luxembourg, a Canadian, was elected second director.

• Two Swedes were then eliminated for the third director position, Helena Lingham and Michael Markland, before Eoin McCrossin or Ireland lost to Canada’s Roselle Goncalves for the final board spot. 

• Estonia’s Harri Lill, chair of the Athlete Commission, is now the athlete rep on the board.

• Argentina and Singapore were upgraded from conditional to provisional membership status.