Curling Canada announces four-player Trials format and qualifying process

Canadian four-player curling teams looking to qualify for the 2026 Winter Olympics now have a defined pathway to lead them to Italy, it was announced today by Curling Canada.

Guided by findings from the High Performance Review conducted following the 2022 Winter Olympics, and in consultation with Sport Canada, Own The Podium and high performance curling athletes, there will be a slightly different format and qualifying process for the Trials, as well as new guidelines for Wild Card Teams to qualify for the Brier, presented by AGI, and Scotties Tournament of Hearts.

Changes and formats for the Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials are still being finalized and will be announced later this year.

“We feel confident that these changes will give our high performance athletes the best opportunity to succeed,” said Katherine Henderson, Chief Executive Officer of Curling Canada. “There were a lot of voices, from athletes, funding partners, and coaches, who played a valued and significant role in getting us to this point and while there is still work to be done, we feel we are in a better place leading to the 2026 Winter Olympics.”

The four-player Canadian Curling Trials, scheduled for Nov. 22-30, 2025 (location to be announced), will be an eight-team event and will feature, for the first time in Trials history, a best-of-three final.

After a single round-robin draw, the top three teams will reach the playoffs, with second place playing third in a semifinal, and first place going straight to the final.

Here’s how the eight-team fields will be determined:

• 1 — 2024 champions at the Scotties and Brier (must finish top six at world championships; if the team does not finish top six, the berth will be awarded to the highest ranked team from the 2023-24 Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) as of the end of 2024 Players’ Championships. Teams that don’t finish top six at the world championship will be awarded a pre-trials berth.
• 2 — Leading team in the 2023-24 CTRS standings that hasn’t already qualified via the Brier/Scotties.
• 3 — 2025 champions at the Scotties and Brier (must finish top six at world championships; if the team does not finish top six, or if the team has already qualified via Berth 1 or 2, the berth will be awarded to the highest ranked team from the 2024-25 Canadian Team Ranking System (CTRS) as of the end of 2025 Players’ Championships. Teams that don’t finish top six at the world championship will be awarded a pre-trials berth.
• 4 — Combined two-year (2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons) CTRS standings (if team earning this berth has already qualified, the next-highest team on the two-year list will get the berth).
• 5 — Combined two-year (2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons) CTRS standings (if team earning this berth has already qualified, the next-highest team on the two-year list will get the berth).
• 6 — Combined two-year (2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons) CTRS standings (if team earning this berth has already qualified, the next-highest team on the two-year list will get the berth).
• 7 — Leading team in the 2024-25 CTRS standings that hasn’t already qualified via the previous six criteria.
• 8 — Pre-Trials winner.

The Pre-Trials will be played in October (dates to be announced) and will have the same format as the Trials — eight teams, three-team playoff, best-of-three final — and will feature the top eight non-qualified teams from the 2024-25 CTRS standings (the number will be reduced if Brier/Scotties winners from 2024 or 2025 don’t qualify for the Trials based on the above criteria).

There will also be changes in place for the Scotties and Brier, beginning with next year’s Canadian championship events, in Calgary and Regina respectively.

First and foremost, while the competition format will remain basically the same as that used for the past two years (18 teams, two nine-team pools, six-team playoffs), tiebreaker games will be eliminated, bringing Canadian championship events in line with the world championships and Olympics.

A modified playoff format will see the first-place team from Pool A meeting second place from Pool B, and vice versa, in the first round of the playoffs, with the winners going directly to the Page playoff 1-2 game, while the losers meet the third-place finishers in the pools. The winners of those games will advance to the Page playoff 3-4 game.

As well, for the next three Scotties and Briers, more teams besides the defending champion Team Canada will qualify well in advance of the events as Wild Card teams.

Here’s how pre-qualified teams will be determined for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 Scotties and Brier:

2024

• Defending champions Team Einarson (Scotties) and Team Gushue (Brier)
• Top two CTRS teams not already qualified by the end of the 2022-23 season (through to the Grand Slam Champions Cup). The third Wild Card team will be named following 2023-24 provincial/territorial playdowns.

2025

• Defending Scotties and Brier champions
• Top three CTRS teams not already qualified by the end of the 2023-24 season (through to the Players’ Championships)

2026

• Defending Scotties and Brier champions
• Top three CTRS teams not already qualified by the end of the 2024-25 season (through to the Players’ Championships)

Additionally, residency rules for Wild Card teams and Team Canada will be modified, as follows:

Team Canada 

• Must retain three of four players from Championship-winning team year prior if registered as a four-player team, or four of five players if registered as a five-player team. No residency requirements during season as Team Canada.

Wild Cards/Pre-Qualified Teams

• Must retain three of four players from qualifying team the year prior if registered as a four-player team, or four of five players if registered as a five-player team.
• A pre-qualified team can meet the residency requirements to be a Member Association champion, but if it has earned a pre-qualified berth, it will not play in the playdowns the following season.
• A pre-qualified team can also not meet the residency requirements to be a Member Association champion; however teams that choose this path and do not earn a pre-qualified berth are ineligible to play in their Member Association playdowns without becoming residency-compliant.
• Final decisions on what to name the pre-qualified teams at the National Championships will be made later this summer.

14 Member Association Champions

• Unchanged; teams must be made up of three of four, or four of five, players with birthright or bona fide resident status, and may have one free agent.

Giving teams the chance to qualify for the Scotties and Brier earlier through the Wild Card process is aimed at giving teams the opportunity to better balance their training and competition schedule, explained David Murdoch, Curling Canada’s Director, High Performance.

“Having teams chasing points through playing in multiple events for the first half of the season to improve their chances for a Wild Card berth really detracts from the time they could be spending training on the ice or in the gym, as well as resting and recovering from events and travel,” said Murdoch. “This will give teams with high performance ambitions a much better opportunity to better plan their training and playing schedule around peaking for national and international competitions in the same way the plan around peaking for the Trials and Winter Olympics.”