Team Canada battles on Wednesday at the 2025 World Wheelchair Curling Championship

Wednesday was a great day of curling at the 2025 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in Stevenston, Scotland, that started strong for Team Canada. The Canadians had the ice figured out Wednesday morning with a 6-3 win against Slovakia; however, they came up short 5-4 in a tight game against Team Sweden in the evening.

“I think today it was much better than we’ve seen on that sheet,” said lead Collinda Joseph (Stittsville, Ont.) after their win. “It was good to play on it knowing that we understood what would happen later in the game because of the experience that we had already, so I think it worked in our favour today. I was really happy we walked away with the win.”

Past games against Slovakia have also witnessed some of Canada’s best curling, with the last time the two teams faced off being at the 2024 World Wheelchair Curling Championship in South Korea, when Canada closely survived a 6-4 win that ended with a missed opportunity for Slovakia. At the 2022 Paralympics, Canada and Slovakia played a great game for the bronze medal that was won for a Canadian team with credit to fourth Jon Thurston (Dunsford, Ont.).

The evening’s match between Canada and Sweden went back and forth with some great curling from both sides on improved ice conditions, but it ended with Sweden scoring the winning point in an extra end.

Thurston made a draw to the four-foot to tie the game in the eighth end and force an extra. He then attempted a difficult tap on his last throw and put some pressure on the Swedish team, but unfortunately the tap was two feet too heavy.

“We always like playing them, but it always goes back and forth,” said Joseph. “They’ll win one and we’ll win one. They’re a great team, and when you get on the ice with them, they’re fierce competitors just like we are.”

Team Sweden has been a noteworthy competitor for Canada, as it has not finished outside of the top four in five years. The two teams’ meeting in 2024 also concluded in an extra end, with Team Canada scoring three. This matchup is known to be an entertaining one, and Wednesday’s game certainly proved that.

“There was nothing either team was giving away easily, so it was an interesting game to play; it just sucks to lose it,” said Joseph.

Alongside Joseph and Thurston, skip Gilbert Dash (Kipling, Sask.), second Douglas Dean (Thunder Bay, Ont.), and fifth Chrissy Molnar (Trent Lakes, Ont.) are tied for third place with Team Norway, Team Scotland, and Team Sweden with a 5-4 record as they head into the final day of round robin on Thursday.

On Thursday, Canada will take on Team China at 9:30 a.m. and Team Italy at 2:30 p.m. (all times Eastern).

All games will be available to watch live on the Curling Channel.

For live scores, standings, and statistics for the 2025 World Wheelchair Curling Championship, click here.