Team Canada advances to playoffs at World Women’s Curling Championship
Team Canada fulfilled its first mission at the 2025 World Women’s Curling Championship: advance to the playoff round.
Team Canada—composed of skip Rachel Homan, vice-skip Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, and alternate Rachelle Browne—secured their playoff berth at the end of a two-win day on Thursday in Uijeongbu, South Korea. They’ve also just about ensured Canada’s spot in women’s curling at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
First on the penultimate day of round robin play was a 7-6 extra end win over Switzerland, as the Canadians handed the Swiss their first defeat of the tournament. Team Homan showed amazing resiliency in the match, as Switzerland could not capitalize on two opportunities to end a Canadian comeback.
With the game tied in the eighth end, Swiss fourth Alina Paetz was unable to remove a Canadian rock fully and instead of scoring four, had to settle for one. After Canada took the lead with two points in the ninth end, Switzerland could have finished it off in the 10th. This time, Paetz’s final throw pushed the game-winning point too far and another single tied the game again. With the hammer back in Homan’s hands, she drew to the button for the victory.
“The turning point was probably her miss for that four. Honestly, I don’t know if it was there. She squeaked the guard as much as she could and I thought we put ours in almost a perfect spot, like maybe a foot higher. But other than that, it was exactly where we wanted it and made her make a tough one. I just don’t know if it was there. So I think that was the turning point to save the end,” Homan said. “It took us 11 ends to beat them and I’m just really proud of my team for sticking together and trying to make the next one.”
Team Homan then stormed to an 11-2 win over Japan, a match that ended with handshakes after the Canadians got a steal of five in the eighth end.
With an 8-2 record and two round robin games left to play, Canada was tied for second in the standings with South Korea and Sweden. Switzerland continued to lead with a 9-1 record. Two more teams will join them in the playoffs.
Canada’s final two games against Italy and China are still vital because the top two teams in the standings will get byes directly into the semifinals while the other four playoff teams will face off in qualification games.
“We can’t control anything else and how that plays out. All we can control is our next two games for now, so we’ll try to go out and be sharp tomorrow. If we can win our two games and if it works out that way, then great. If we have to play in the qualifier, then that’s fine too,” Miskew said.
The defending world champions started off the world championship with an easy 13-2 win over Lithuania, a match that ended after six ends. Canada dropped their second game to Scotland by a score of 8-7. Canada had been leading by two in the 10th end, but in trying to remove a Scottish rock, jammed on a Canadian counter at the back of the house. That gave the Scots the opportunity to make a nose hit for three and the win.
But the Canadians put that behind them quickly and reeled off four straight wins, starting with a 9-7 triumph over Sweden, skipped by 2018 Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg. They earned a comfortable 9-3 victory in eight ends against Denmark followed by a textbook 8-4 win over the United States, scoring two in three ends when they had hammer. They cruised to an 8-3 victory in eight ends against Türkiye.
At that point, Canada was tied with South Korea for second in the round robin standings with matching 5-1 records. But last year’s world bronze medallists proved to be a tough test for the Canadians and Eunji Gim skipped the home team to an 11-7 win. The game was tied at the fifth end break before the Koreans put three on the board in the sixth and got two more in the eighth. After Canada got three back in the ninth, they attempted to set up a steal in the 10th, but to no avail. Team Gim was left with a hit for three and the win.
In Homan’s 100th career match representing Canada internationally, her team bounced back with an 8-6 win over Norway.
Seven countries will qualify for women’s curling at Milano Cortina 2026 based on their combined performances at the 2024 and 2025 World Championships, joining host nation Italy. The last two spots in the Olympic tournament will be decided at the Olympic Qualification Event to be held December 6-19 in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Canada will also aim to lock up berths in the men’s and mixed doubles Olympic curling tournaments at those respective world championships. Brad Jacobs will skip Team Canada at the men’s worlds, taking place March 29-April 6. They’ll be the home team in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Canada carries a second place finish from last year’s world championship towards Olympic qualification.
From there, the team’s second, Brett Gallant, will join forces with his wife, Jocelyn Peterman, to compete at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, taking place April 26-May 3 in Fredericton, New Brunswick. As the winners of the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in early January, they would qualify themselves for Milano Cortina 2026 if Canada is among the top seven nations when the 2024 and 2025 results are combined. Canada finished fifth at last year’s world championship.
The women’s and men’s teams that will take on the mantle of being Team Canada at Milano Cortina 2026 will be determined at the Canadian Curling Trials in November 2025.
