Team Canada takes aim at a second straight gold medal at World Women’s Curling Championship
Team Homan will start defence of their world title on Saturday when the 2025 World Women’s Curling Championship gets underway in Uijeongbu, South Korea.
Skip Rachel Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, and alternate Rachelle Brown are looking to become the first Canadian team to win back-to-back women’s world titles in more than three decades. The last time the same lineup of Canadian curlers repeated as women’s world champions was when Team Sandra Schmirler did it in 1993 and 1994. That same quartet (skip Sandra Schmirler, third Jan Betker, second Joan McCusker, lead Marcia Gudereit) went on to win Olympic gold at Nagano 1998.
Last year, Team Homan capped off an incredible season (in which they won 67 games and lost just seven) with the world championship gold medal. They’ve been just as dominant this season, accumulating a 56-4 record heading into the worlds. That most recently includes an undefeated run through the national championship, the Tournament of Hearts, in February.
This will be Homan’s fifth world championship appearance. She has been on the podium in her four previous trips to the worlds, which includes a gold medal in 2017 in addition to the one claimed in 2024. She skipped her team to silver in 2014 after a bronze in 2013. Miskew has been there with Homan throughout, having played together since they were about 12 years old. Wilkes came aboard in 2020-21 while Fleury joined them in 2022-23. Both won their first world championship medals last year.
But there is more than just medals up for grabs at these worlds. Seven countries will book spots in the women’s Olympic curling tournament at Milano Cortina 2026, joining host nation Italy. Points based on the final standings from the 2024 and 2025 World Championships will be added together to determine the first batch of Olympic qualified countries. Which team will become Team Canada for Milano Cortina 2026 will be determined at the Canadian Curling Trials in November 2025.
Here is how the women’s Olympic qualification rankings stand heading into the 2025 World Championship:
1 – Italy – 10 points (qualified as Olympic host nation)
2 – Canada – 15 points
3 – Switzerland – 13 points
4 – South Korea – 11 points
5 – Sweden – 9 points
6 – Denmark – 8 points
7 – United States – 7 points
8 – Scotland (Great Britain) – 6 points
9 – Norway – 5 points
10 – Türkiye – 4 points
11 – Japan – 3 points
12 – Estonia – 2 points
13 – New Zealand – 1 point
The 13 teams in attendance this year will all play each other in a round robin. The top six teams will advance to the playoffs. There are no tiebreaker games; ties are resolved based on head-to-head results, or if needed, pre-game Last Shot Draw distances.
The top two teams after the round robin advance directly to the semifinals. The third-place team will play the sixth-place team and the fourth-place team will play the fifth-place team in qualification games, with the winners moving on to the semis. The winning teams from those semifinals will play for gold while the two losing teams face off for bronze.
It should be no surprise, based on their success this season, that Team Homan is number one in the World Curling Team Rankings. But among the teams that could provide them a challenge are Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni, who won four straight world titles from 2019 to 2023 but were denied a fifth by Team Homan in last year’s final. South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim won bronze at the 2024 World Championship. Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg is third in the world rankings; that quartet won Olympic gold in 2018 and Olympic bronze in 2022.
Team Canada’s Schedule at World Women’s Curling Championship:
Saturday March 15 – 1:00 a.m. ET – Lithuania (Team Virginija Paulauskaite)
Saturday March 15 – 6:00 a.m. ET – Scotland (Team Sophie Jackson)
Sunday March 16 – 1:00 a.m. ET – Sweden (Team Anna Hasselborg)
Monday March 17 – 1:00 a.m. ET – Denmark (Team Madeleine Dupont)
Monday March 17 – 8:00 p.m. ET – United States (Team Tabitha Peterson)
Tuesday March 18 – 6:00 a.m. ET – Türkiye (Team Dilsat Yildiz)
Tuesday March 18 – 8:00 p.m. ET – South Korea (Team Eunji Gim)
Wednesday March 19 – 6:00 a.m. ET – Norway (Team Marianne Roervik)
Wednesday March 19 – 8:00 p.m. ET – Switzerland (Team Silvana Tirinzoni)
Thursday March 20 – 6:00 a.m. ET – Japan (Team Sayaka Yoshimura)
Friday March 21 – 1:00 a.m. ET – Italy (Team Stefania Constantini)
Friday March 21 – 6:00 a.m. ET – China (Team Rui Wang)
Friday March 21 – 9:00 p.m. ET – Qualification Playoff*
Saturday March 22 – 3:00 a.m. ET – Semifinals*
Saturday March 22 – 9:00 p.m. ET – Bronze Medal Game*
Sunday March 23 – 3:00 a.m. ET – Gold Medal Game*
*pending qualification
You can keep track of live scores, standings, and statistics thanks to World Curling. All of Canada’s round robin games and playoff games will be broadcast live on TSN.