#PowerRankings W19

#BetweenTheSheets: A Slide Towards Equality

Plus updated #PowerRankings

During Championship Sunday at the Canada Cup in Leduc this past weekend, Curling Canada Chief Executive Officer Katherine Henderson made the equality announcement curling athletes and fans have been waiting for years to hear. The Scotties and Brier, the Canadian national championship events, would finally have equal pay. "Equal pay for equal work" as Henderson has been quoted as saying.

Starting with the 2020 championships, the total purse at both events will be an equal $300,000. The champions from both events will earn $105,000 each, which includes cresting and prize money. Runner-ups will receive $65,000 while bronze medal winners receive $45,000. The remaining $85,000 will be allocated among the remaining competing teams depending on final placement.

For comparison sake, at the 2019 championships Team Koe earned $105,000 for their Brier win while Team Carey earned $59,000 for the Scotties title. A nice, and needed, hefty jump for our female athletes.

When we look at total purse amounts from last year, the Brier awarded $293,000 while the Scotties handed out $165,000. The new purse almost doubles for the Scotties by comparison and we even see a slight increase at the Brier.

The clarity on where the extra funding will come from has not been released based on media statements I have read so whether Curling Canada has strengthened existing sponsorship deals or is just carving a larger piece of the pie out of their own operating dollars, the end result is still savory and sweet.

The announcement was certainly a nice slide out of the hack but in the bigger picture of the sport, have we even crossed the hog line for equality?

Nobody can argue equality at the national championships should not happen. Athletes and fans, regardless of gender identity, have been vocal on wanting to see this for years. When Henderson took over the CEO role in 2016 she made it clear this would be one of her top priorities. She has followed through and the sport, in Canada, is better for it.

But lets not be idealistic either. Is this great news? Yes. Does it equate to curling equality among our male and female athletes overall? Maybe?

The Scotties and Brier matching purse is great for those teams who qualify and compete. The best of the best in Canada. But what about the rest of our athletes? What about those who fail to reach the Scotties? Are they still getting their fair piece of the money pie?

We have seen equal payouts on the Grand Slam of Curling ice. Another win towards sport equality. But again, this benefits only the select few who qualify for the slams. And it is a VERY select few.

Yes the top teams deserve top dollar. They are putting in the work. They deserve to be rewarded. And they should be rewarded on an equal sheet of ice to their male counterparts. But does this announcement further #growthesport?

Some people have made comments believing the push for equality is sending a strong message to future female curlers that the sport values both male and female athletes and curling wants to eliminate the "glass ceiling" effect.

Awesome. And for some, this will be very true. But for the majority who curl week in and week out on tour, does this announcement align with how many teams pay the bills by competing on tour? Do we have pay equality at the grassroots level? Can the sport grow and flourish without equal success at the grassroots and tour level?

Lets look at the 2019-2020 World Curling Tour season for comparison.

For ease of comparison we will use the Tour-Tier system created by this blog. Remove your thoughts on the actual system itself for this discussion but rather focus on the numbers. For the tier system, tour events earn their designation based on the total purse for the event NOT the schedule of field.

Therefore an event handing out a purse of $84,000 as an example (Penticton) would be classified as a #Tour1000 while an event with a purse of $10,500 (Sunova) would be a #Tour250. Again, ignore the teams entered in both events for comparison and look at it from a pure dollar value classification.

Under the TwineTime tour-tier system, events with a purse under $20,000 are #Tour250 events. Between $20,000 - $30,000 would be a #Tour500 and any event with a purse over $30,000 is a #Tour1000.

The Tour 500 window seems small, only $10K, but a vast majority of events are starting to fall within this window so, for now, this made the most sense.

Lets compare our men's and women's tour events for this season based on the tour classification:

Men

#Tour1000 - 8 (12.7%)
#Tour500 - 21 (33.3%)
#Tour250 - 34 (54%)
Total Events - 63

Women

#Tour1000 - 6 (12.5%)
#Tour500 - 15 (31.3%)
#Tour250 - 27 (56.3)
Total Events - 48

Lets ignore, for a quick moment, the obvious discrepancy of there already being 15 more men's events to women's events on tour and look at those percentages. On paper, the numbers are actually quite even. We see some equality to the percentage of top purse events on both tours. And similar for the middle and lower purse events. This is a great indicator towards equal pay.

If we look at a very recent example, the Curl Mesabi event this past weekend, the women's winner (Team McCarville) actually outearned the men's winner (Team Dropkin).

What we need to see is dual events offering dual purse amounts. Whether it be national championship events like the Scotties/Brier or smaller #Tour250 events like Curl Mesabi. As curling fans, athletes and equality advocates, we should all be fighting for equal pay for equal work.

Now of course we have the imbalance between how many men's-only events there are on tour, still equating to male teams having a greater opportunity to earn more money based on playing schedule.

This is the next fight for equality. Equal pay for equal work with equal opportunity. How do we get there? The push for pay equality has been a success and we are seeing the gap finally close between our male and female athletes in the sport. Now we just have to increase the opportunity to further #growthesport for future generations.

Pay equality is great but if equal opportunity is not there where are we putting the money in the long-run? Who benefits?

This might be the next great debate for the future of the sport. Ideas? Thoughts? We need to keep the conversation going and not rest on happiness towards this one announcement. Celebrate it, yes. But stop the equality discussion? Not even close!

Ok back to the action on the ice.

Because the blog took a mini-hiatus for most of November, this week's returning #INturn segment is going to highlight some major victories over the past few weeks. And, to celebrate the return of the blog, lets skip the #OUTturn segment....for one week. Don't get too comfy though curlers, the eyes are still watching and the #OUTturn will be coming back next week.

#INturn

• #PACC2019 Women - #TeamUpset emerged atop the podium when host nation Team Han surprised the world and won the gold medal defeating Japan's Team Nakajima in the final. The victory gave China their first gold medal since 2014. For Japan it is their third straight silver medal win. South Korea's three-year title run came to an end in the SF when Team Gim lost to Han. Gim would reach the podium however when she defeated Hong Kong's Team Hung for bronze. For Hung, it would be her third straight 4th place finish. China and Japan qualified for the world championship based on reaching the final.
• #PACC2019 Men - South Korea and Japan continued their rotation atop the men's podium at the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships. Team C. Kim regained gold for Korea when they knocked off defending champion Team Matsumura from Japan. China once again finished in 3rd place when Team Zou defeated New Zealand's Team Becker in the bronze medal game. For NZ, this is their second consecutive 4th place finish and the first time they have had back-to-back Top 4 finishes since bronze medal wins in 2007 and 2008. The South Korean win also qualified the nation for the world championship.
• #TourChallenge Tier I - Sweden's Team Hasselborg took home their third #gsoc title when they defeated Team Einarson in the Tour Challenge final in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. It was a truly international Final Four on the women's bracket as USA's Team Roth and Japan's Team Fujisawa reached the SF. Team Jacobs was able to #DefendTheIce when they won their second straight Tour Challenge, defeating Brad Gushue in the final. Alberta rivals Team Bottcher and Team Koe rounded out the Final Four.
• #TourChallenge Tier II - The wins continue to pile up this season for Korea's Min-ji Kim. Team Kim won the Tour Challenge Tier II title knocking off Team Murphy in the final. Kim went 6-1 on the week en route to winning the final while Murphy needed to survive a TB before making a deep playoff run of her own. Team Brown and Team Peterson reached the SF. And international teams went 2-for-2 on the Tier II ice when USA's Team Dropkin, also known as the Young Bucks, won the championship over Team T. Horgan. Dropkin knocked off former Quebec champ Team Fournier in the SF while Horgan defeated last year's Tier II champion Team Muyres to book their spot in the final.
• #ECC2019 Women - Team Hasselborg continued their winning ways and gave the home nation fans reason for celebration when they were able to #DefendTheIce in Helsingborg, winning their second straight gold medal defeating Scotland's Team Muirhead in the final. Switzerland's Team Tirinzoni, last year's runner-up, would drop a spot on the podium winning bronze after defeating Russia's Team Kovaleva. For Kovaleva, it would be their second straight 4th place finish. Worth noting the following nations also qualified for the upcoming world championship: Sweden, Scotland, Switzerland, Russia, Germany, Czech Republic and Denmark.
• #ECC2019 Men - The #SwedishVikings pulled the #SwedishDouble on home ice when Niklas Edin recaptured Euro gold after defeating surprise (for some) finalist Team Schwaller from Switzerland in the final. Scotland's Team Paterson took home bronze after knocking off #TeamUpset Denmark in the bronze medal game. Denmark were a nice story from the event having won the B-division last year and now ending up with a 4th place finish overall. Remember only a few years ago the nation was competing in the Euro C-division after a silver medal finish at the world championships. The following nations qualified for the world championship: Sweden, Switzerland, Scotland, Denmark, Italy, Norway, Germany and Netherlands.
• #ECC2019 B-Division - Italy returns to the top flight while Turkey finally breaks through. A year after being relegated to B-division, Italy won the B gold in Sweden and will return to the A-division next year. Joining them will be Turkey, who moved up one spot from the bronze medal win of a year ago. Italy and Turkey will replace Norway and Latvia, who were relegated. Hungary just missed out on promotion but did take home bronze after defeating England in the third place match. Poland and Lithuania were relegated to C-division. On the men's side, Czech Republic will make their long awaited return to A-division after winning B-division gold, defeating Finland in the final. Czech Republic and Finland (who were relegated to B last year) will replace Russia and England, who were relegated this year. Poland took home the bronze medal after defeating Turkey. Slovakia and Israel were relegated to C-division.
• #CanCup2019 - This past weekend saw Team Homan and Team Epping earn the first spot to the 2021 Roar of the Rings Olympic Curling Trials in Saskatoon when they won the Canada Cup in Leduc. Homan defeated Team Fleury in the final while Epping knocked off home province fav Team Koe to take the title. For Homan this is her second Canada Cup victory after previously winning in 2015, also in Alberta (Grand Prairie). For Epping, the victory concluded the steady up-hill climb of results he has had at the event. Epping finished 3rd in 2015 and 2016 and was runner-up last year. Rounding out the playoff brackets were Team Carey and Team Bottcher.
• #WCT Champions List - The following teams collected World Curling Tour titles over the past few weeks. On the women's tour: Team Koana (Kelowna), Team Sinclair (Red Deer), Team Kim (Boundary Ford), Team Birt (Spitfire Arms), Team Zacharias (Sunova) and Team McCarville (Curl Mesabi). On the men's tour: Team Harty (Original 16, Saskatoon), Team Whyte (Prague), Team Wenzek (Kelowna), Team Pahl (Red Deer), Team G. Howard (Halifax), Team Bottcher (Penticton), Team McDonald (Charlevoix), Team Gassie (Sunova, Thistle), Team Zou (High River), Team Dropkin (Curl Mesabi) and Team Tuck Jr (Nissan).

We have A LOT of updates to make on the Power Rankings mountain. 4 weeks of results in fact. Did the results at #PACC2019 or #ECC2019 make some rumblings on the mountain? What about the results this past weekend in Leduc at #CanCup2019?

PLUS we have not only team updates but nation updates to make after the continental championship results and the World Wheelchair B-division Curling Championship. Lets go to the mountain....

#PowerRankings

NATION

1. Canada - 4900 (LR: 1)
2. Sweden - 3595 (2)
3. Switzerland - 3490 (3)
4. Scotland - 2853 (4)
5. China - 2310 (5)

Hon. Mention: South Korea, Japan, Russia, Denmark, Norway, USA, Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, New Zealand

No surprise Canada retains their spot atop the standings, as they picked up an additional 250 points for winning the World Wheelchair B-division this past week.

Sweden, Switzerland and Scotland all hold ground after all three reached the dual podium at the European Curling Championships. Sweden just holds off a hard-charging Swiss squad, also in thanks to the silver medal win at the World Wheelchair B-division.

China's gold and bronze medal performance at the Pacific-Asia Curling Championships keeps them in the Top 5, less than 200 points ahead of South Korea who also won a gold and bronze at #PACC2019. Dual #PACC silver medal winner Japan retains their #7 spot.

The only change among the Top 10 is Denmark swapping spots with Norway, in thanks to their men's 4th place finish at #ECC2019 and Norway missing the playoffs (we won't get into that though). There is only 41 points separating the two Scandinavian nations however.

Czech Republic continues to move up the standings, buoyed by the men's Euro B-division gold and the recent bronze medal win at the World Wheelchair B-division.

The #WMDQE is currently underway so a few more nations will collect some points and try to move into the Top 15 in the world rankings. A few top ranked nations like South Korea, Japan, Denmark and Germany are all competing at the qualification event.

For the #TwineTime prediction on the four nations to emerge and book tickets to the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, keep your eyes on Korea, China, Italy and Germany with Turkey, Denmark, Poland, Belarus and Latvia as strong contenders as well.


WOMEN

1. Team Homan - 7744 (LW: 1)
2. Team Einarson - 6904 (3)
3. Team Tirinzoni - 6845 (2)
4. Team Hasselborg - 5110 (5)
5. Team Fleury - 4788 (4)

Hon. Mention: Team J. Jones, Team Carey, Team Fujisawa, Team Walker, Team Muirhead

Homan's victory at the Canada Cup retains her spot atop the mountain and actually increased her lead. Over the past weeks, in the absence of the blog rankings, the lead dipped to as close as 39 points. But, in true Homan fashion, as teams start applying pressure for the top spot they rise to the occasion hold off all on-comers.

Einarson and Tirinzoni swap positions, mostly due to Tirinzoni's bronze medal win at Euro's compared to the silver win from a year ago. And the flip effect happened with Euro champion Hasselborg. Her ability to #DefendTheIce in Sweden bumped her past Fleury for the #4 spot.

Carey's run to the Canada Cup SF helped move her to the #7 spot, her highest ranking since being ranked #5 back in Week 9.

And welcome the newest addition to the Top 10: Team Walker. Walker's QF run at Boundary Ford and finals appearance last weekend at Curl Mesabi bump them to the #9 spot, their highest ranking of the season.

Sitting just outside the Top 10, we are keeping our eyes on Korea's Min-ji Kim. Kim won the Tour Challenge Tier II, reached the QF in Red Deer and won the Boundary Ford event two weekends ago. Kim currently sits #12 and just under 500 points from cracking the Top 10.

On the flip side, Russia's Team Kovaleva drops out of the Top 10, now sitting #11. Team Scheidegger and Team Silvernagle continue to move in the opposite direction of the mountain as well over the past few weeks, finding themselves in the #18 and #21 spots respectfully.


MEN

1. Team Bottcher - 7333 (LW: 1)
2. Team Koe - 6035 (2)
3. Team Mouat - 5194 (4)
4. Team Paterson - 4930 (3)
5. Team Epping - 4553.5 (HM)

Hon. Mention: Team Gushue, Team Edin, Team De Cruz, Team Jacobs, Team Matsumura

Bottcher's run to the Canada Cup SF retained their spot atop the Power Rankings mountain while Koe's falter in the final hindered them on making up ground on their provincial rivals.

Some may be surprised by Mouat's rise over Scottish rival Paterson but look at the results. Yes, Mouat lost the points earned from winning Euro gold last season. And yes, Paterson gained on winning Euro bronze this year. However, since Euro's Mouat has reached the SF in Halifax and Penticton, #Tour500 and #Tour1000 events, earning just enough points to pass Paterson.

Welcome back to the Top 5 Team Epping! Epping's Canada Cup win vaults them back into the upper echelon of the rankings mountain, returning for their first time since being ranked #5 back in Week 13.

The regular contenders among the Top 10 remain the same: Gushue, Edin, De Cruz and Jacobs. These 4 teams have been inter-swapping positions #5 to #9 almost the entire season. Currently only 400 points separates #5 Epping from #9 Jacobs. It is THAT close among the top contenders!

Japan's Matsumura continues to hold on to that #10 spot but is now 1000 points behind Jacobs and less than 200 points ahead of #11 Dunstone. Team McEwen continues to make a move up the mountain though, now less than 100 points behind Dunstone in the #12 spot. McEwen's run to the final in Penticton and QF in Saskatoon have helped bolster their ranking position.

Keep your eyes out for Alberta's Team Harty though. Quick name the team who has won more #wct events this season, men or women? If you guessed Team Harty and their 4 titles, congratulations!! Harty's win in Saskatoon was their second #Tour500 event win, coupled with their win a few weeks ago in Calgary. They also have #Tour250 wins in Airdrie and Edmonton earlier in the season. The results have landed Harty in the Top 20 at the #20 spot.

#StayTuned

This upcoming weekend will see a #Tour500 men's event in St. John, NB and a #Tour250 event in Saskatchewan. The women will also be competing in St. John, NB at the #Tour250 event.

Again, the tour-tier system is based on total purse. Another perfect example of equality. The women's total purse is listed at $8,250 while the men's is $15,300. Just sayin'.....

This is also the pre-#gsoc week of play so many of the top contenders are preparing for The National, starting the following week in Conception Bay South, NL.

Thanks to those rock heads for sticking with the blog during the November absence. Sometimes we just need to get away for a little vacation time to recharge the batteries, reflect on our mental health and restart our passions. It was great to get some curling in though at the European Curling Championships. Huge thank you to World Curling Federation for once again granting the blog media accreditation to attend and be part of the fun.

And additional thank you to Curling Canada for also providing the blog media accreditation at this past weekend's Canada Cup in Leduc. While I may have been a bit tired and looking a bit ragged at times, it was (and continues to be) an honour to be part of these events.

Enjoy your week rock heads....hopefully the weather is nice. And get that Christmas shopping done if you haven't finished. Curling socks are a hot item I hear!