Kerri Einarson returns to Calgary with sights set on women's world curling gold

Team Canada, from left to right, lead Karlee Burgess, third Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard and skip Kerri Einarson celebrate after they won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts curling finals in Mississauga, Ont., Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Frank Gunn

CALGARY — Kerri Einarson’s curling team commences its bid for a women’s world title Saturday in an arena where the skip has felt both joy and pain.

Einarson, vice Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Karlee Burgess and alternate Krysten Karwacki open the 13-country BKT Women’s World Curling Championship against Sweden at Calgary’s WinSport Event Centre.

Einarson, out of Manitoba’s Gimli Curling Club, also wants to keep the world title in Canada after back-to-back gold medals by Rachel Homan’s team.

“Rachel’s definitely set the bar high for us,” Einarson said Friday after practice in the arena on Calgary’s west side.

Einarson and company won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Feb. 1 in Mississauga, Ont., where the skip made a long angle raise against four Kaitlyn Lawes counters to force an extra end.

“It’s the best shot I’ve ever been a part of,” Burgess said. “It’ll be forever ingrained in my brain.”

An Einarson steal in the 11th gave the skip and Edmonton’s Sweeting their fifth national title, Birchard her sixth and Burgess her first.

February’s Olympic Games pushing the Hearts to earlier in the curling calendar gave Einarson a break of over a month before the world championship, instead of the customary two weeks.

“We feel really good,” the 38-year-old skip said. “We’re not used to having a month off after the Scotties.

“We’ve been practising lots and had some really great team practices. We came here four days early and had good training days, so we feel prepared and ready.”

Einarson, Sweeting, Birchard and Brianne Harris claimed back-to-back world championship bronze medals in 2022 in Prince George, B.C., and 2023 in Sandviken, Sweden.

Fan-free in COVID bubble

They also represented Canada in 2021 in Calgary after winning their second straight national title there. Calgary was the site of a seven-event COVID-19 curling bubble from February to May that year.

Einarson and company went 7-6 and were ousted in their first playoff game at WinSport.

No fans were allowed into the building during the bubble. Some bought cardboard cut-outs that were placed in empty seats.

On the eve of the 2024 Scotties Tournament of Hearts in Calgary, where Einarson sought a record fifth consecutive Canadian title, Harris tested positive for a banned substance.

Harris wasn’t allowed to compete there or anywhere until she was cleared 11 months later. A discombobulated Einarson team fell short of the final four at Hearts.

“We’ve had some really great experiences in this building and some not so great experiences in the building,” Birchard said. “That’s just part of the game and part of curling.”

Einarson deployed multiple subs during the 2024-25 season in the absence of Harris, and also Birchard because of a knee injury.

She eventually replaced Harris with 27-year-old Burgess. Birchard recovered to return to the team this season.

Einarson has also played in a pair of PointsBet Invitationals and a Pan Continental Championship in Calgary over the last half-decade.

“We’ve definitely played in this venue a ton and we know our way around and it definitely feels like home,” Einarson said. “It’s so nice here and a beautiful facility. This week, instead of staying at the hotel, we changed it up a little bit and got an Airbnb so I think that kind of changes things a little for us.

“Just being all together, we like being in an AirBnBs and playing our board games and hanging out as a team. We’re playing marbles. We’re pretty competitive. It gets heated.”

World championship format

This world championship will be the last of a 13-country, single round-robin format. Men’s and women’s fields will expand to 18 teams in 2027 and divided into two pools of nine.

The top six teams at the conclusion of the preliminary round March 20 advance. The top two are seeded directly into semifinals the following day.

The remaining four square off for the right to join them in the semifinals. The medal games are March 22.

Canadian teams have won 19 women’s world championship gold since 1979, followed by Switzerland with 10 and Sweden with eight.

“We just want to position ourselves well through the round robin and then take playoffs as they come, and just get ourselves into that gold-medal game,” Sweeting said.

“You don’t know how many times you’re going to be in this position. To make the most of it and to come home with a victory, I think would mean so much.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press