After a fantastic start to the year, the 2024 World Men’s Curling Championship is here with a variety of squads aiming for the title. Of course, SBS released a preview of this competition earlier in the year but is now back with updated betting markets and a prediction on who will take home the gold in 2024. Per the latest World Curling Federation (WCF) standings, there is a clearly defined top five in the standings. Right now, Italy is ranked as the number one team in the world with 393.4 points and is followed by Scotland at 349.4 points on the year. There are two other fantastic squads to watch out for here with Switzerland (third, 305.8 points) and Sweden (fifth, 286.8) both in a great position to make a title run in 2024. It should also be noted that Canada (fourth place in the WCF) just missed the cut.
In this report, SBS will be going over what to look for from each of these squads, a predicted winner of the competition, and also more notes about world championship curling.
Favorites to Win 2024 World Women's Curling Championship | |||
---|---|---|---|
Scotland | +250 | +250 | +250 |
Italy | +350 | +350 | +350 |
Switzerland | +400 | +400 | +400 |
Sweden | +450 | +450 | +450 |
The winner of last year’s Curling World Championship, Scotland notched its sixth world title by holding off Canada and Switzerland in last year’s competition. During the 2023 competition, Scotland recorded a mark of 10-2, with its only losses occurring at the hands of Sweden and Switzerland. Of course, the Scottish were still able to move forward by knocking off Canada 9-3 in the gold medal game at the competition. Scotland this year will be led by skip Bruce Mouat who is one of the most accomplished skippers in the sport. He is the reigning Scottish, European, and World men’s champion skip.
Italy enters this tournament as the best team in the world per the latest WCF rankings. Of course, things could change quickly, but the Italians have been on their game to start 2024. In last year’s world championship competition, Italy notched a sixth-place finish after the round-robin portion of play after entering the tournament as the prospective third seed. While they were not able to put together a complete effort, the squad still finished in fourth place at the tournament. While they have not won a world championship in men’s curling quite yet, they have been performing better in recent years (a third-place finish in 2022) so perhaps this is the year that they break through and secure the gold.
Another fantastic squad, the Swiss are currently piloted by skip Yannick Schwaller who helped lead the team to the bronze medal at the world championship in 2023. A team with some great heritage, Switzerland has won three gold medals in men’s curling at the world championships. Of course, the last time this occurred was back in 1992 in Germany so there certainly is some anticipation for making up for lost time for the Swiss. During last year’s round-robin portion of play, Switzerland scored an impressive record of 11-1 which was the best of any team during this portion of play at the tournament. However, this level of performance was not enough as the Swiss ended up notching the bronze medal in Ottawa after falling to Canada in the semifinals.
Our last contender showcase, Sweden is currently recognized as a top-five team in the world per the latest WCF rankings. While Scotland won last year’s title, Sweden has really been the dominant team of the last decade in men’s curling. With 11 overall world titles in the event, the Swedish men’s team has captured six world titles since 2013. Of course, there is certainly work to be done at this event, but it would be foolish to count out the hottest team of the past decade at the world championship. Moreover, since 2020, they have won two of the gold medals at the last three world championship competitions.
Prediction: This competition will come down to the wire as all of these squads have world championship ability. However, this competition will go to Scotland as the hot hand in the world of curling.
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