WWhCC2021 Preview

#BetweenTheSheets: World Wheelchair Curling Championship Preview

Welcome to the Ice Cube...Who returns for the 2022 Paralympic Games?

Helllooooo World Championship curling!

With all the focus on Olympic/Paralympic Games qualification events and trials, how about we shift our focus to crowing our first world champions of the 2021/22 curling season?

The best wheelchair curling athletes from around the world will hit up the #IceCube in Beijing from October 23 - 30 in search of claiming a world championship for their home nation.

12 teams enter the "cube". 1 will emerge as champion.

Of course this world championship will also serve as a test event for the 2022 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.

And, as such, this event also serves as a Paralympic Games qualifier.

11 nations will look for strong results over the next week to punch their return ticket to the #IceCube in March 2022 to chase Paralympic gold.

China, as host nation, is the only nation officially with a spot in the field.

How will we fill out the field? Nations competing this week will look to earn Paralympic Qualification Points based on their final standing.

Heading into the 2021 world championship, here are the current Paralympic Qualification standings:

China sits atop based on their cumulative results at the past two world championships. They enter #1...and they do not even need to worry about the points.

Spot #2 - #10 seem VERY likely to clinch spots in the Paralympic Games field as well.

The big question mark is those final two spots.

Estonia and USA currently sit with the last two tickets.

Estonia failed to qualify for the 2021 championship, missing the playoffs at the World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship in Finland. They will be very anxious watching the games this week.

But, even without being here, they are sitting on the positive side of the cut line. The only teams to knock them out of the Paralympic field will be USA and/or Italy.

USA, sitting with 2 points, needs to reach the #FinalFour to pass Estonia. But, even failing to do so, they just need to finish higher in the standings than Italy to punch their ticket.

Italy, making their return to the world championship, need one of two results:

1. Finish at least 3 positions higher than USA in the final standings (2 position would possibly create a tie)
2. Reach a medal game to ensure finishing with at least 9 points to pass Estonia

If Italy were to reach a medal game, USA would need to at least reach the playoffs as well to qualify and officially eliminate Estonia.

And what if Italy and USA reach the gold medal game?

Estonia would be eliminated. And the final spot would depend on the final standings, with likely the lowest finisher between Sweden, Latvia and Switzerland being the odd nation out.

Got all that?

Lots of "possible" permutations remain but, barring major upsets, USA and Italy are fighting for the final Paralympic spot.

Now, back to focusing on the World Wheelchair Curling Championship event itself.

2021 marks the 15 year milestone of the event. First off, congratulations wheelchair curling athletes and World Curling Federation for reaching the 15 year mark. This is a great milestone for the discipline and curling fans should be excited to see wheelchair curling continue to take off and grow.

Here are a few interesting facts about the #WWhCC:

🥌 Canada is the only nation to have qualified for all 15 world championships. USA, Norway and Scotland are one back with 14 appearances each. RCF and Korea will make their 13th appearance while Sweden makes #12, Switzerland #11 and China #10 as the only nations with double digit showings.

🥌 On the flip side, Latvia has the least amount of experience of the 2021 qualified nations. This year marks only their 3rd appearance.

🥌 A few other non-traditional curling nations with #WWhCC experience: Poland (2005), Wales (2004, 2005), Estonia (2019, 2020), Czech Republic (2011, 2020), England and Bulgaria (2002 - 2005).

🥌 The world championships started as a 9 nation event in 2002, moving to 13 nations in 2004 and up to the record 16 nations in 2005. The event dropped to 10 nations from 2006 - 2016 before bumping up to the current standard of 12 nations in 2017.

🥌 Worth noting, in years when the Paralympic Games are held (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018), there has been no world championship event.

🥌 Russia/RCF lead the way with the most gold medal wins, winning their historic 4th in 2020. Other nations with world championship titles include: Canada/Norway (3), Scotland (2) and Switzerland/China (1).

🥌 Switzerland's lone title came as host at the very first world championship in 2002. China won their lone title in Scotland in 2019. 

🥌 A total of 12 nations have landed on the podium at least once at a world championship. Those nations include: RCF, Canada, Norway, Scotland, Switzerland, China, Korea, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, USA.

🥌 No home ice advantage? In the 14 year history of the event, only 3 nations have claimed the world title on home ice: Switzerland (2002), Scotland (2005) and Canada (2009). Can China become the 4th and break the curse?

🥌 Wheelchair curling is a mixed gender sport with each competing nation required to have at least one member of the team being of each gender. This is also a qualification for the Paralympic Games as both genders must be represented on each qualifying national team.

Before we dive into the preview, a quick commentary from a #growthesport lens.

I may be incorrect here but I am not finding any information on this world championship being made available via the WCF YouTube channel and/or available streaming.

Does anyone else find this extremely disappointing?

The 2018 Paralympic Games saw HUGE online viewership of wheelchair curling. Why are we not equally investing and promoting the discipline at a world championship, especially a world championship with Paralympic Games qualification?

The blog has been a long-time supporter of wheelchair curling and has always believed this discipline of the support deserves equal representation to any other discipline on the ice.

This is no longer a "nice to have" but rather should be a "We Demand!" type of call to action.

If anyone does find online streaming of this world championship, please reach out and let me know. Add the link to the comments section after this post as well so we can all watch.

And if something changes or I discover a link to streaming, I will provide an Ed. Note update to this post.

Representation Matters!

From the #IceBubble of a year ago to the #IceCube today. Lets go....

World Wheelchair Curling Championship

Beijing, China

2020 Champion: RCF (Team Kurokhtin)

Format: 12 team RR with 6 playoff qualifiers. 1st and 2nd place in the RR earn a bye to the SF.

Nations Competing: Canada, China, Italy, Korea, Latvia, Norway, RCF, Scotland, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, USA

#Fav

How do you bet against the defending champs? RCF is back to #DefendTheIce with the exact same team who won the championship in 2020.

This is also a team who knows how to battle. The 2020 championships were not a dominant performance. They needed to win their final RR game to avoid a possible playoff. They finished the RR 6-5 to claim the 5th playoff spot.

The wore the #StealPants in the QF victory over Norway, in an extra end. And they were down 2-4 to Canada in the gold medal game before #StealPants in 7 and 8 to pick the Canadians pocket for the title.

They have experience. They know they can rebound from losses. They do not give up when trailing games. Factor all of that into the equation and the champs could go back-to-back.

RCF already has the most gold medals at the world championship with 4 so they will look to add to their record haul here. As well, the last nation to go back-to-back? Yup, RCF in 2015/2016.

#TeamUpset

All eyes will be on Italy, especially in Estonia.

The Italians make their return to the world championship ice for the first time since 2012. The 2021 championship will mark their 7th appearance, with a best result being 5th in 2008.

Italy qualified via their bronze medal win at the World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship in Finland in April. When Estonia failed to make the playoffs and Italy "upset" Germany for bronze, the team not only clinched a long-awaited return spot to the championships but kept those Paralympic dreams alive.

The Italians are the long-shot here. However, if they finish at least 3 spots ahead of USA, they could find themselves being the ultimate #TeamUpset in securing a return ticket to Beijing next year.

If you want a dark horse playoff contender, take a look at Latvia!

The Baltic nation has seen great growth in the discipline over the past few years. From a a bronze medal finish at the 2018 World Wheelchair-B event to earn their debut at the world championships, they have finished with back-to-back 5-6 records in 2019 and 2020. Those 9th and 7th place finishes highlight a nice trajectory up the world rankings.

2021 may only be the 3rd appearance for Latvia but this is an experienced team showing consistent results. And this is the same team making their 3rd appearance so do not be surprised to see them fight for that final playoff spot.

Not to mention, only 3 world championship appearances and they are already on the cusp of qualifying for the Paralympic Games. Gotta love it!

#W2W4

We know the Paralympic Games qualification is going to take centre stage here, as highlighted above.

But lets not forget this is a world championship. This is not JUST a Paralympic qualification event.

We often focus on the Paralympic Games being the ultimate goal. But most of the nations competing at this event have pretty much clinched spots in those games already. The focus is on winning a gold medal.

For some nations, RCF, they are looking to cement their legacy as the best wheelchair curling nation in the world.

For others, Canada and Norway, they are looking to tie RCF for the most world championships as each sit with 3, 1 back of leading RCF.

For a few others, can they finally claim their first world wheelchair championship? Nations like USA and South Korea, making their 14th and 13th appearance respectfully, have become regular contenders but still chase that first taste of gold.

And what about Switzerland? They were the inaugural world champions back in 2002. Since then, only 3 podium finishes with the most recent being 2007. 2021 will be their 11th appearance but their best result since those podium results was back in 2016 (4th).

As also mentioned above, Estonia will be keeping close eyes on those results and standings. While you never want to cheer against a competitor, I have a feeling Estonia wouldn't mind seeing USA and Italy take a few losses this week.

Projected Final RR Standings: RCF, China, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Scotland, USA, Slovakia, Switzerland, Korea, Italy

Relegated to 2022 World Wheelchair-B Championship: Switzerland, Korea, Italy

 

Qualifiers: RCF, China, Canada, Norway, Sweden, Latvia

#WWhCC2021 Bronze Medal: Canada (Team Ideson) def. Norway (Team Stordahl)

#WWhCC2021 GOLD MEDAL: China (Team Sun) def. RCF (Team Kurokhtin)

Paralympic Games Qualifiers (Projected Paralympic Qualification Points): China (Host, 37 points), RCF (32), Norway (26), Canada (25), Scotland (22), Korea (19), Sweden (18), Latvia (17), Slovakia (16), Switzerland (13), Estonia (8), USA (7) 

What say you rock heads? Who do you think will take home the world championship this season?

Who do you think will qualify for the 2022 Paralympic Games?

Don't forget, follow along with the results on the WCF page HERE.

#StayTuned

So much curling going on this time of year rock heads.

The Masters will wrap up and crown our first major winner of the season over the weekend.

The #WWhCC2021 will continue next week, crowing our first world champion of the season next weekend.

Plus we have the Curling Canada Olympic Pre-Trials hitting the ice in Nova Scotia next week.

The blog will slide back into your house next week with a Pre-Trials preview.

Good luck and good curling to all the athletes competing.