Perth, Scotland – Word Curling has partnered with StreamAMG to relaunch their streaming platform, The Curling Channel, ahead of the World Junior Curling Championships 2024 taking place in Lohja, Finland.
 
The service will be powered by StreamAMG’s new BLAZE platform and will offer all of World Curling’s live and on-demand content.
 
As part of World Curling’s Big Ideas strategy and following the recent brand refresh, the platform aims to develop the future of the streaming offering provided by the federation and content created by our partners in the curling community.
 
Colin Grahamslaw, World Curling Secretary General said, “As part of our new strategy of commercial and entrepreneurial growth, we were looking for a new platform that could significantly enhance the viewer experience and open up new markets to help us to generate a consistent income from streaming productions. Following an exhaustive process, we believe that StreamAMG are the right partners to help us drive that experience to new and larger audiences.
 
“This is the first phase of approach to making our content available to the world. This new platform gives us the opportunity to grow our streaming offering and make it the ultimate location for curling coverage.”
 
Hugo Sharman, CEO at StreamAMG said, “Curling is a sport that is growing in popularity all over the world and not just in its traditional regions. We are honoured to be awarded the opportunity to be part of the sport’s efforts to grow and to form part of its new commercial direction.”
 
Streaming from the World Junior Curling Championships 2024, beginning on Saturday 17 February will be the first full event published through the new Curling Channel.

Lohja, Finland – The World Junior Curling Championships 2024 will be held in Lohja, Finland, from 17 to 24 February. This will be the 49th edition of the championship on the men’s side and the 36th edition for the women. Ten men’s and ten women’s teams representing their national Member Associations will compete.

Men’s competition

The men’s field consists of: Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland and United States.

The reigning champions, China, bring a new team to the world stage, skipped Tao Liqiu Nan.

Germany, skipped by Benjamin Kapp, won silver at the last two editions of the event. This year, they aim to climb one step higher on the podium.

Scotland took bronze last year and with one change in their line-up, they target the podium in Lohja as well. Two of their team members, Logan Carson and Archie Hyslop, took gold medals in the mixed competition at the recently concluded Youth Olympic Games in Gangwon, Korea.

Another Youth Olympic champion will also compete in the men’s competition in the Kisakallio Sports Institute. Norway’s skip Lukas Hoestmaelingen won Youth Olympic gold in the mixed team event in Lausanne in 2020.

Denmark’s Jacob Schmidt and Nikki Jensen participated in this year’s Youth Olympics in Korea as well. Both took silver in the mixed team event, whereas Schmidt added another silver to his collection in the mixed doubles competition.

Canada, United States, Denmark and New Zealand secured their places at the world championship by reaching the semi-finals at the World Junior-B Championships in December 2023.

Women’s competition

The participating teams in the women’s field are: Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and Türkiye.

Scotland women are the reigning world champions. Four of their team members were in their line-up last year as well. Their skip, Robyn Munro is a World Mixed Championship silver medallist from 2022.

Japan took silver last year and were crowned world champions in 2022. Two of their team members — Ueno Yui and Miura Yuina — were members of both former podium-finisher teams.

All four members of Norway’s team were part of last year’s bronze medal-winning squad. Their third player Nora Oestgaard and second thrower Ingeborg Forbregd are Youth Olympic champions from 2020 in the mixed team competition.

China, Canada, Germany and Türkiye women have all secured their spot at this event by reaching the semi-finals at the World Junior-B Curling Championships 2023 last December.

Schedule

Round-robin play starts on Saturday 17 February and continues until Thursday 22 February. The top four teams in the round-robin rankings qualify for the semi-finals in both genders.

All semi-finals will take place on Friday 23 February. The women’s semi-final games will start at 14:00 and are followed by the men’s semi-finals at 19:00.

In both genders one semi-final will be played between the first-ranked and the fourth-ranked teams, while the other semi-final will feature the second- and third-ranked teams.

The winners of the semi-finals will play for gold medals and the world title, the losers will play for bronze.

The women’s medal games will take place on Saturday 24 February at 10:00. The men will play for the medals at 15:00 on the same day.

World Curling TV will be streaming all games. Information about the streaming will be available soon.

Click here for the playing schedule.

All times are EET (Eastern European Time) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +2 hours.

Perth, Scotland – The launch of the World Curling rebrand and new website arrives as one of the cornerstone components of the six “Big Ideas” defined by the World Curling Board in January 2023.
 
“The new identity is a modern and dynamic brand for our sport,” said World Curling President, Beau Welling. “We are excited to be showcasing our sport and brand to increasingly younger and more diverse audiences by reaching them through our engaging digital platforms.
 
“The brand identity refresh is about more than just a new logo. It’s an opportunity to redefine our vision for the sport and share our values to the wider world as we continue to develop as a modern and inclusive community.
 
“The brand was developed, in collaboration with our partners, WePlay, to be flexible and allow us to consolidate the number of projects managed by World Curling under one unified brand umbrella. This refresh is a fundamental first step in the exciting journey our organisation and sport is undertaking.”
 
The new World Curling logo is the embodiment of the core aspects of the sport, crafted with the two fundamental elements of curling. The outer circle draws inspiration from the rotation of a stone, while the internal element is designed to emulate the sweeping motion on ice.
 
Together the two elements work to create a sense of forward movement, alluding to the future of World Curling as we continue to foster the development, values and community of our unique sport.
 
The new brand identity launches alongside a modern website and will continue to roll out over the coming months, with the changes to the digital assets and social media channels being updated as a priority.

Perth, Scotland – The World Curling Federation has today announced that it is expanding its long-standing partnership with Rock Solid Productions Inc., the global leader in iceless curling.
 
The partnership will promote floor curling within the World Curling Federation’s membership and aid in the establishment of new Member Associations. The partnership will see the World Curling Federation manage the governance for the floor curling discipline.
 
World Curling Federation President, Beau Welling said, “The World Curling Federation is delighted to grow our partnership with Rock Solid Productions and expand the role that floor curling can provide in promoting and developing our sport.
 
“We’ve seen substantial membership growth over the last number of years but many of our younger members don’t have access to ice to practice. Floor curling has a track record of successfully introducing curling to the masses and this new partnership will allow us to take it one step further by introducing tournaments to the off-ice discipline.”
 
Rock Solid Productions was founded in 2008 and its products are currently present in over 60 countries worldwide. Since its establishment, Rock Solid Productions has provided floor curling opportunities to millions of people. Tens of thousands of these floor curlers —primarily school children— eventually started playing on ice.
 
Rock Solid Productions President, Chad McMullan said, “As official partners of the World Curling Federation since 2015, we are very excited about this next step in the evolution of floor curling.
 
“Floor curling is a naturally inclusive sport, allowing people of all abilities to be able to compete together, at the same time. We have delivered almost three million floor curling experiences in Canada over the past 15 years, and this expanded partnership will help bring those opportunities to the rest of the world as well.”
 
World Curling Federation, Head of Development, Scott Arnold added, “One of the goals of this partnership was to standardise the rules of floor curling. This has been accomplished with the publishing of the World Floor Curling™ Official Rules of Play and Official Rules of Competition.
 
“To make these new rule books more accessible, we created online courses. These are presently in English, but our intention is to translate the courses into other languages to aid in the adaptation and growth of floor curling throughout our membership.”
 
World Curling Federation Commercial Partnerships Manager James Beatt said, “The partnership will provide our member associations the opportunity to create new pathways to further commercialise the sport in their respective nations. This is the first step to break down barriers to entry and reduce the cost to participate worldwide.”

Lohja, Finland – Canada men won gold medals at the World Junior-B Curling Championships 2023 after beating United States, 7-4, in the final at the Kisakallio Sports Institute.

Canada scored two points in both the first and third ends, while forced United States to take single points in the second and the fourth ends.

The Americans reduced their deficit to one point with a single steal in the seventh end – at 4-5 –, but Canada eventually won by 7-4.

In the bronze medal game, Denmark met New Zealand. The Danish were leading by 3-2 at half time and won by 7-5 in eight ends.

All semi-final teams earned a spot for their Member Association at the World Junior Curling Championships 2024, taking place from 17–24 February also in Lohja, Finland.

The men’s field at the World Junior Championships 2024: Canada, China, Denmark, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland and United States.