Meet the teams competing at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2019

Canada
Instead, Alberta’s Chelsea Carey [pictured above © WCF / Michael Burns] will be wearing the Maple Leaf in Silkeborg, after arguably one of the strongest comebacks in a Scotties Tournament of Hearts final. Carey faced 2017 World Women’s champion, Rachel Homan, in that final and was down 1-5 after four ends. With a strong display of grit and resilience, they managed to get on the scoreboard with single stolen points in the sixth, seventh, tenth and finally the extra end. Then, Carey and co. pulled out a stunning 8-6 victory after Homan was light on a draw to the four-foot. This will be the skip’s second world appearance, after a fourth-place finish in 2016 with a different line-up.

United States
Joining Canada from the Americas zone are United States. For the second year in a row, Jamie Sinclair will be skipping the Stars and Stripes after an impressive fourth place finish last year. Sinclair – with her new line-up – won the USA National Curling Championship in Kalamazoo, Michigan beating Olympic representatives, Nina Roth in the final, 6-4.

From the Pacific-Asia zone, there will be representation from three teams – Korea and Japan – who qualified through the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships 2018 in November and China, who earned their place through the new World Qualification Event in January.

Korea
Korea’s Minji Kim burst onto the elite curling scene this season after winning their National championship in late summer. This gave them the right to represent Korea at all major international competitions – including all legs of the inaugural Curling World Cup, Pacific-Asia championships, Winter Universiade Games and World Juniors. Yes – the team of 19 and 20 year olds are still eligible for junior play. After beating Olympic bronze medallists, Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa, to claim the Pacific-Asia gold medal in Gangneung, South Korea, the team earned their spot at the world championship. The foursome also defeated Olympic champions, Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg, to win the third leg of the Curling World Cup [pictured above © WCF / Céline Stucki]. This means the team will wrap up their jam-packed season competing at the Curling World Cup Grand Final against the best teams in the world in Beijing, China this May.

Japan
Fujisawa’s second place finish at the Pacific-Asia championship was enough to earn Japan a spot in the LGT World Women’s. At the Japanese Nationals, Chiaki Matsumura defeated Fujisawa 7-5 to claim the national title and the trip to Denmark.

China
For the first time ever, eight more Member Associations who had not previously earned a spot at the worlds were given a second chance to win a place. The World Qualification Event debuted in Naseby, New Zealand in January. The event gives two additional teams the opportunity to book their ticket to Silkeborg. China’s Rui Wang will return to the world championship with a new line-up after earning the first spot against Finland 4-3.

Finland
The Finns, skipped by Olympic mixed doubles representative, Oona Kauste, won the final spot at the World Qualification Event against Hungary 8-1. Despite world appearances for the skip in 2015 and 2016, Kauste will be looking for an improvement on her previous records with her new line-up.

Denmark
Hosts, Denmark, will send their PyeongChang Olympic team [pictured above © WCF / Michael Burns] to Silkeborg. The Danish team, skipped by Madeleine Dupont finished with one win and eight loss record at the Olympics, but have plenty of international experience on top of that. With ten world women’s championships under Dupont’s belt, playing on home ice may be an advantage this team utilises.

Finally, six teams earned their Member Association a spot at the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship based off their performance at the Le Guyère AOP European Curling Championships 2018 in November.

Sweden
It wouldn’t be a world championship without the reigning Olympic champions. Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg [pictured above © WCF / Michael Burns] won the Swedish championship in January and will look to improve on last year’s silver medal. They are coming off their first European championship title, after defeating Switzerland in the final 5-4. The foursome also competed at all legs of the Curling World Cup this season – dropping the final of leg three to Korea’s Minji Kim. They will wrap up their season in Beijing alongside Kim at the Grand Final in Beijing.

Scotland
For the second year in a row, Scotland won’t be represented by Eve Muirhead. This year, Sophie Jackson defeated Muirhead in the final of the Scottish championship, sending the young team to Denmark for their first worlds (Jackson was selected as the alternate last year). The team will be coming to Denmark fresh off a successful run at the Winter Universiade Games wrapping up just days prior to the worlds.

Russia
The 2018-2019 season brought some changes to the women’s curling scene in Russia. One of those changes included Russian skip Victoria Dupont (nee. Moiseeva) stepping back from curling after winning the 2018 world bronze medal. This opened the door for new teams to be formed – one of whom will be competing in Silkeborg. Alina Kovaleva will wear the Russian colours with her new line-up after beating Anna Sidorova in a best of seven series.

Switzerland
The Swiss [pictured above © WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik] will be represented by yet again another new combination of players. Skip Silvana Tirinzoni and third Alina Paetz teamed up this year and won the Swiss Nationals in an extra end against Binia Feltscher 8-7. With Switzerland’s dominant performances over the years on the world stage, expect nothing different from this team.

Germany
Returning for her fifth appearance in a row is Germany’s Daniela Jentsch. This team is coming off their best international showing to date – with a bronze medal over Russia at the European’s in November [pictured above © WCF / Alina Pavlyuchik]. Despite never reaching play-off contention, this team has been close over the years.

Latvia
The team skipped by Iveta Stasa-Sarsune earned their way to Silkeborg with a 4-5 European record and will look to improve on Latvia’s three previous appearances.

Live coverage of these championships will be available via the World Curling Federation’s broadcast partners: Eurosport (Europewide), TSN and RDS (Canada), NBCSports (United States), NHK/BS1 (Japan), CCTV5 (China), SBS (Korea), SRF/RTS/RSI (Switzerland), Viasat (Denmark, Norway and Finland), Polsat (Poland), SVT 1 & 2 (Sweden), Match TV (Russia), La Chaine Equipe (France), Sportacentrs (Latvia), BBC Online (United Kingdom). Coverage will also be available, subject to geo-blocking restrictions, on the event website and the World Curling Federation’s Twitter, Facebook and YouTube Channels: www.youtube.com/WorldCurlingTV

To engage with the World Curling Federation on social media in the build up to the LGT World Women’s Curling Championship 2019 follow it on Twitter, Instagram (@worldcurling) and Facebook (/WorldCurlingFederation) and use the hashtags when posting: #WWCC2019 #curling