Young Shooters Vault Switzerland Back to Top of World Women’s Curling

With files from Curling Canada

Switzerland’s Xenia Schwaller defeated Canada’s Kerri Einarson 7-5 in the world championship gold medal game at Calgary’s WinSport Arena on Sunday evening.

Down by one without hammer in the 10th end, Einarson attempted to tap around a close centre guard and knock Switzerland’s shot stone far enough to count. The Canadians made contact, but couldn’t push it far enough away to extend the game.

Schwaller’s previous throw came after a conference with Canadian coach John Epping. The young skip’s runback was perfect, leaving her shot stone stuffed behind the guard.

“(Epping) told me I think you should play it now, because if she’s going to guard on her last one, it’s going to be a guard like higher, so make the shot tougher,” Schwaller said. “I think it was the right shot, and obviously it turned out really good to be fully buried behind the guard.”

The young Swiss team – Schwaller, third Selina Gafner, second/vice-skip Fabienne Rieder and lead Selina Rychiger – won the world junior championship just two years ago.

The squad led the way during the round robin, finishing with just one loss, and took out Sweden’s Isabella Wrana – the eventual bronze medallists – in the semifinal round.

The silver is the best-ever world championship finish for Canada’s Einarson, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and lead Karlee Burgess, who previously claimed world bronze in 2022 and 2023.

“It’s pretty amazing to medal on the world stage, and it’s an upgrade from our previous bronze, so it does still feels very special,” Einarson said.

Schwaller controlled the opening half, converting every hammer opportunity and keeping Team Einarson in check. Canada made attempts to wrestle back control, but Switzerland held the momentum for much of the game.

Schwaller continues Switzerland’s long tradition of excellence in women’s curling, becoming the fifth different skip to win the world title since 2012, joining Mirjam Ott, Binia Feltscher, Alina Paetz and Silvana Tirinzoni.

Paetz and Tirinzoni won Olympic silver just a month ago, but lost their national championship playoff to Schwaller shortly after returning home from Cortina d’Ampezzo.

“I think it just showed us that we need to work a lot to achieve the same thing,” Schwaller said. 

“We have tough competition back home, and I think it helped us and pushed us even more to work harder and get here.”