2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship starts Saturday in South Korea

Canada’s top wheelchair curlers will begin their pursuit of a fourth world title for the National Wheelchair Curling Program on Saturday when the 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship gets underway at Gangneung Curling Centre in South Korea.

This year’s Canadian crew consists of skip (lead rocks) Mark Ideson (London, Ont.), fourth Jon Thurston (Dunsford, Ont.), third Ina Forrest (Spallumcheen, B.C.), second Gilbert Dash (Wolseley, Sask.), fifth Chrissy Molnar (Trent Lakes, Ont.), head coach Mick Lizmore, and team leader Kyle Paquette.

Forrest and Ideson are no strangers to the world stage, having represented their country at the worlds every year since 2008 and 2013 respectively. The last time the two competed at this venue was during PyeongChang 2018 when they won Paralympic bronze. Thurston, who made his world championship debut in 2019, returns to Team Canada for a sixth time and fifth as last-rock thrower. As for Dash, this is only his second time at the worlds, but he already has a silver medal from last year’s championship on his resume. And new to the team is Molnar, a National Program athlete who will rep the maple leaf for the first time in international competition.

Overall, the team has a combined 271 games played in world championships under its belt.

Canada is hoping for another solid performance following its silver medal finish last year in Richmond, B.C. Meanwhile, Team China, skipped by Wang Haitao, looks to win its third consecutive world title. Team Scotland, skipped by Hugh Nibloe, won bronze in 2023 and leads all countries for most World Wheelchair Curling Championship medals with eight.

Estonia, Italy, and Slovakia qualified for the event as a result of their podium finishes at the 2023 World Wheelchair-B Curling Championship last November.

The 12-team round robin starts Saturday, March 2 and continues until Thursday, March 7. The top six teams from the round robin advance to the playoffs, with the top two receiving a bye while the remaining four play in the first round. The gold and bronze medal games will take place Friday, March 8 at 9 p.m. ET.

Here is the schedule for Team Canada (all times ET):

• Saturday, 12 a.m. – vs. Korea
• Saturday, 7 p.m. – vs. Slovakia
• Sunday, 5 a.m. – vs. Italy
• Monday, 12 a.m. – vs. China
• Monday, 5 a.m. – vs. Estonia
• Tuesday, 12 a.m. – vs. United States
• Tuesday, 5 a.m. – vs. Scotland
• Tuesday, 7 p.m. – vs. Latvia
• Wednesday, 12 a.m. – vs. Czechia
• Wednesday, 7 p.m. – vs. Norway
• Thursday, 5 a.m. – vs. Sweden

All games will be available to watch on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@curling1.

For live scores, standings, and statistics for the 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship, go to https://livescores.worldcurling.org/wwhcc/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at https://www.curling.ca/category-all-posts-fr/?lang=fr.