Team Canada’s Olympic curling schedules for Beijing 2022
With international qualification now complete, the Olympic curling draws for Beijing 2022 have been unveiled.
In each of the mixed doubles, men’s, and women’s tournaments, Canada will play nine round robin games. At the end of the preliminary round, the top four teams in the standings of each tournament will advance to the playoffs.
The teams ranked first and fourth will square off in one semifinal while the teams ranked second and third will compete in the other semifinal. The winners move on to play for gold and silver leaving the losers to battle for bronze.
Beijing 2022 Olympic Competition Schedule
Here is how Canada’s schedule looks in each of the tournaments with some of the key matchups to keep an eye on. Morning draws will typically begin at 9:00 a.m. in Beijing (8:00 p.m. the night before in Eastern Time) with the afternoon draws at 2:00 p.m. in Beijing (1:00 a.m. ET) and the evening draws at 8:00 p.m. in Beijing (7:00 a.m. ET).
Team Canada’s Mixed Doubles Curling Olympic Schedule
We won’t know until the end of the mixed doubles trials on January 2 who will have the task of defending Canada’s Olympic gold medal in February. What we do know is that they won’t have an easy opening day.
Canada’s first action will be in the morning draw on February 3 (Day -1) against Great Britain, who boast the reigning world champions in Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat. Canada will be back for the evening draw against Norway, who will send the reigning world silver medallists, Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten.
Morning on the day of the Opening Ceremony will see Canada face off against Switzerland, who will be represented by the reigning Olympic silver medallists Jenny Perret and Martin Rios. Canada will return to the ice for the afternoon draw against China.
On the official Day 1 of the Games on February 5, Canada play in the afternoon against Swedish duo Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson, who won bronze at the 2021 World Championships, and then face the United States in the evening.
After another morning off on Day 2, Canada will play the Czech Republic in the afternoon and Australia at night. Canada will close out the round robin on the morning of February 7 against Italy. The semifinals will take place that evening ahead of both medal matches on February 8.
Team Canada’s Men’s Olympic Curling Schedule
Team Gushue (Brad Gushue, Mark Nichols, Brett Gallant, Geoff Walker, Marc Kennedy) will kick off their Olympic competition in the first draw on the evening on February 9 against Denmark – the last team to qualify for Beijing.
Canada will return to the ice the next afternoon to play Norway. On February 11, Gushue and company won’t play until an evening matchup with Switzerland. Skipped by Peter de Cruz, the Swiss won bronze at PyeongChang 2018 as well as the 2019 and 2021 World Championships.
February 12 will see an anticipated showdown with Sweden in the afternoon. Niklas Edin skipped his team to gold at the last three world championships in 2018, 2019 and 2021. In 2017, Gushue beat Edin for the gold medal at the worlds before Edin returned the favour in 2018.
The morning of February 13 brings another interesting matchup as Canada will face skip John Shuster, the reigning Olympic champion from the United States. That will be followed by an afternoon game on February 14 against Italy. In Gushue’s first Olympic appearance at Turin 2006, his team was upset by skip Joel Retornaz in one of their rare losses en route to the gold medal.
Canada will play two games on February 15, facing off with host China in the morning and then the ROC in the evening. After a full off day on February 16, they’ll close out the round robin against Great Britain in the morning of February 17. Bruce Mouat is also the skip of the British men’s team who were the runners-up at the 2021 World Championship and won gold at the recent European Championship.
The semifinals will take place in the evening of February 17. The bronze medal game will be played on the afternoon of February 18 with the gold medal game on the afternoon of February 19.
Team Canada’s Women’s Olympic Curling Schedule
Team Jones (Jennifer Jones, Kaitlyn Lawes, Jocelyn Peterman, Dawn McEwen, Lisa Weagle) won’t see action until the second women’s draw on the evening of February 10 when they play the South Korean team skipped by Kim Eun-jung who won silver at home in PyeongChang in 2018.
The Canadians will then face Satsuki Fujisawa and the reigning Olympic bronze medallists from Japan on the afternoon of February 11 before a big match against Sweden on the morning of February 12. Anna Hasselborg’s team are the reigning Olympic champions who won back-to-back silvers at the worlds in 2018 and 2019.
Team Jones will return for an afternoon match on February 13 against Switzerland. That should be another tough battle as Alina Pätz has skipped her team to four world titles, including the last two in 2019 and 2021.
February 14 will be a two-match day, starting in the morning against the reigning world silver medallists from the ROC skipped by Alina Kovaleva and ending in the evening against Great Britain. Skip Eve Muirhead will be playing in her fourth Olympic Games and won bronze at Sochi 2014 but had to go through the last chance qualifier to earn the spot in Beijing. That followed their victory at the 2021 European Championships.
After on off day on February 15, Canada will have another two-match day, taking on the reigning world bronze medallists from the United States in the morning following by China in the evening. They’ll close out the round robin on the afternoon of February 17 against Denmark.
The semifinals will take place on the evening of February 18 with the bronze medal match the next evening and the gold medal match on the morning of the Closing Ceremony on February 20.
