What the Swiss women’s team have achieved at the recent World Championships is historic for curling.
Four consecutive titles is phenomenal in itself.
But to go on a winning streak of 36 games in the biggest annual tournament we play is hard to get your head around.
There’s an argument to say that the talent pool on the women’s side has never been as deep, which makes their numbers even more incredible.
Norway actually had a great chance to beat them in the final but twice failed to seize their moment.
Over the course of the week, though, there was no arguing about the dominant team.
Carole Howald 🇨🇭makes a run takeout, and rolls to leave Switzerland lying two at both sides of the house!
Watch live on the Curling Channel: https://t.co/fy3vfdBx89#WWCC2023 #curling pic.twitter.com/EeChGISGCi
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 26, 2023
There was an interesting dynamic in the final.
Both teams were skipped by their third player rather than the one who throws the last stones, which is far more common.
There’s absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t work – as Switzerland have demonstrated down the years.
When you think about it, it’s perfectly logical that not all the time the best tactician in a four will be the best shot-maker.
Alina Patz goes last and has all the pressure on her but it’s Team Tirinzoni by name.
Silvana does the media duties and when people are looking back on their list of achievements, her name will be the first to jump out.
Their achievements are the definition of ‘team’.
There’s no ego about who takes the biggest share of the limelight.
As they chase the Olympic success that has eluded them so far, they’ve definitely earned themselves an aura that will be pretty hard for the rest to overcome.
Sweden’s Team Hasselborg were that number one team for so long but I wouldn’t be reading too much into the fact that they missed out on the medals.
They are masters of getting things right over the four-year cycle and nobody was expecting them to win the Worlds last week given two of their team are pregnant and one of them gave birth around Christmas time!
It would have been understandable if they’d stepped back for a season but they probably wouldn’t want to give another Swedish team the chance to take their spot at the Worlds and build momentum.
I would imagine they’ll get better year on year in the run-up to the next Olympics.
That’s back to back bronze medals for Kerri Einarson and it’s now the longest run Canada has ever gone without winning gold.
They played well but, as I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of very good teams out there these days.
Finals day #shotoftheday 😎 Check this out from @KEinarson #curling #WWCC2023 pic.twitter.com/39xt9QVr4y
— World Curling (@worldcurling) March 26, 2023
I know that Canada are already looking into the fact that their national championships take place just two weeks before the Worlds.
Opening up a bigger gap makes sense and will give them a better chance of ending the gold drought.
For Scotland, it was a disappointing round robin table.
Won three, lost nine was their end total and Rebecca Morrison’s team will now know how big a step-up it is from Europeans to Worlds.
They’ll be better for that experience and a lot of the games were very tight.
The best thing about sport is there are no guarantees.
“It’s been a tough week, but we know that if we come back next year we’re going to have learned so much from this experience," Scotland skip @rebeccaem7 on their @worldcurling Champs campaign.
▶️https://t.co/TPsAozrKiC
📸WCF/Jeffrey Au#curling #WWCC2023 pic.twitter.com/0MwPqZSj5L— British Curling (@BritishCurling) March 24, 2023
There are weeks that go your way and weeks that don’t.
There will be a new head coach starting soon and one of the interesting early decisions will be whether Jen Dodds – who went out to Sweden as an alternate but played a few games – will be brought into the women’s group on a more permanent basis or left to concentrate on the mixed.
The London Marathon is all getting very real now!
I’m feeling in pretty good shape but ask me again after my half-marathon this weekend!
I’ve enjoyed having a sporting goal to focus on again and helping to find a cure for MND, as well as supporting sufferers, all in the name of the great Doddie Weir is a fantastic cause to drive me on.
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