World Curling’s Russia Problem

The World Curling Federation board of directors awoke Thursday to news that one of their member associations—Russia—had attacked another.

(Yes, there is a Ukrainian Curling Federation. The nation became a WCF member in 2013 and four Ukrainian teams have competed in two European and world championships.)

Amid global condemnation of Russia’s unprecedented military attack on its neighbour, an influential Swedish team—one of curling’s strongest—and their member association were prepared to boycott the next European championships if they remained scheduled to be hosted in Russia.

Agnes Knochenhauer plays second for Anna Hasselborg’s bronze medalists from the Beijing Olympic Games, and won gold four years ago in PyeongChang.

“We thought it was surprising when WCF announced the European host city in January,” Knochenhauer told The Curling News.

“And honestly, it was a little disrespectful too as Russia was in the middle of flexing its muscles on Ukraine’s border.

“We strongly believe that the event will be moved and that we never have to decide on boycotting. Not that we would hesitate for one second, though.”

A WCF spokesman previously told The Curling News its board will convene early next week, with a “discussion” on the hosting of the 2022 European Championships as an agenda item.

Within 24 hours, however, an emergency convening of the board resulted in a decision to remove the hosting of the 2022 Europeans from the Russian city of Perm.

“The World Curling Federation shares the international community’s concern for the ongoing situation in Eastern Europe and together with the International Olympic Committee, strongly condemns the breach of the Olympic Truce by the Russian government,” said a WCF news release on Friday. 

The accelerated WC F meeting and decision came just hours ofter the IOC made an unprecedented call to all international sport federations to “relocate or cancel their sports events currently planned in Russia or Belarus.”

Knochenhauer was the first curling athlete to speak out, and her initial social media posting said she awaited a WCF decision to revoke the 2022 Euro hosting rights from Perm.

In a reply post, Knochenhauer stated her team and the Swedish Curling Association “would not even consider going to Russia and haven’t since @worldcurling announced the host country in January.”

Our story on the Perm announcement referenced the fact the original event dates of Nov. 19-26 fall within the two-year period in which Russia is suspended from hosting any major championships. We noted it was unlikely WCF would get their wrists slapped, as other sports have been permitted to host championships in Russia in both 2021 and 2022.

The WCF has been dancing with Russia for years, despite the “unprecedented attack on the integrity of the Olympic Games and sport” the International Olympic Committee declared in late 2017 following Russia’s Sochi 2014 doping scandal and the subsequent cover up that was exposed in 2020, which led to another round of sanctions.

Despite the punishments, WCF has permitted Russia to compete in name at recent European Championships and even December’s Olympic Qualifying Event, where they fielded a mixed doubles team.

The organization also planned to host its Congress and Annual General Assembly in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg in 2020, but went online due to the global pandemic. They tried again in 2021 at the same location, but again were forced to go virtual.

In addition, there have been no announcements pertaining to action taken upon presentation of the evidence in the McLaren Report, which showed—in an exclusive investigation by The Curling News—that four Russian curling athletes (two able-bodied females from the women’s and mixed doubles teams and two wheelchair curlers, one male and one female) had positive doping tests deliberately wiped in the months and weeks before Sochi 2014.

With regard to the latter, WCF is certainly not alone. Athletics and Weightlifting are among the few international sport federations that actively pursued action against named athletes upon receiving McLaren Report data that pertained to their sport.

Glenn Howard spoke out after hearing of the second round of punishments that came into effect for Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022.

“The whole thing is disgusting,” said the four-time world champion skip. “I think they finally got what they deserved. What’s been going on for years now is just unbelievable.

“They’re clearly hiding something and it’s been going on for a long time. I’m starting to think the WCF shouldn’t allow them to curl until they get their act together.

“If the Russians aren’t learning their lesson, WCF should bring the hammer down.” 

The Russian military attack also broke the Olympic Truce, leading to condemnation from the IOC.

The state actions leave ROC’s wheelchair curling team, which is expected to win a medal in Beijing when the Paralympic Winter Games begin next week, in an uncomfortable position.