World Mixed Doubles, World Seniors begin Saturday in Fredericton

A shot at Olympic glory will be the highlighted storyline when the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship gets underway Saturday at Willie O’Ree Place in Fredericton, N.B.

The Canadian wife-and-husband team of Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant from Chestermere, Alta., will play their opening game Saturday at 9 a.m. (all times Atlantic) against Germany’s Pia-Lisa Schoell and Joshua Sutor, beginning the quest to confirm Canada’s berth in the 2026 Winter Olympics mixed doubles competition.

The combined results of the 2024 and 2025 World Mixed Doubles Championships determine seven countries that will join host Italy, with two more countries coming out of the Olympic Qualifying Event in December in Kelowna, B.C.

Last year in Oestersund, Sweden, Canada’s Kadriana Lott and Colton Lott placed fifth.

Peterman and Gallant won the right to compete in Fredericton by winning the 2025 Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in Liverpool, N.S., and should they clinch Canada’s Olympic berth, they will be nominated for selection to the Canadian Olympic team for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan-Cortina.

Also at Willie O’Ree Place, two teams making their World Seniors debuts will be looking to defend Canada’s world titles at the 2025 World Senior Championships.

Canada’s women’s team, skipped by Atina Ford Johnston and representing clubs in Okotoks, Alta., Calgary and Sherwood Park, Alta., and the Canadian men’s team skipped by Randy Bryden, from the Callie Club in Regina, are both in action Saturday to begin their bids to win gold and follow in the footsteps of the world championship victories claimed a year ago in Sweden by Team Susan Froud and Team Paul Flemming.

Here’s a look at each event in Fredericton

World Mixed Doubles Championship

Peterman and Gallant will be competing in their third World Mixed Doubles Championship; they won silver in 2019 at Stavanger, Norway, and finished fifth in 2022 at Geneva, Switzerland.

Team coach Laine Peters and national coach Scott Pfeifer round out the Canadian contingent.

The 20-team field is split into two 10-team pools, with Canada grouped with China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Scotland, South Korea and Sweden..

Each group will play a nine-game round robin, and the top three teams from each group will advance to the playoffs. The first-place teams in each group receive a bye to the semifinals. The second- and third-place teams cross over for qualification games from which the winners advance to the semifinals. The winners of those games go to the gold-medal game, and the losing teams compete in the bronze-medal game. 

Peterman and Gallant will continue Canada’s quest to win its first World Mixed Doubles title; Canadian entries have won four medals (two silver, two bronze) since the event’s inception in 2008.

In Oestersund last year,  Lott and Lott posted an 8-1 round-robin record before bowing 6-5 in an extra end in the playoff qualification round to eventual silver-medallists Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill of Estonia.

Here’s is Canada’s complete mixed doubles schedule (all times ET):

• Saturday, 8 a.m. — Canada vs. Germany (Pia-Lisa Schoell/Joshua Sutor)
• Saturday, 5 p.m. — Canada vs. Denmark (Jasmin Holtermann/Henrik Holtermann)
• Sunday, 1 p.m. — Canada vs. Sweden (Anna Hasselborg/Oskar Eriksson)
• Monday, 9 a.m. — Canada vs. the Netherlands (Lisenka Bomas/Wouter Goesgens)
• Monday, 5 p.m. — Canada vs. Italy (Stefania Constantini/Amos Mosaner)
• Tuesday, 1 p.m. — Canada vs. South Korea (Kyeongae Kim/Jihoon Seong)
• Wednesday, 9 a.m. — Canada vs. Finland (Lotta Immonen/Markys Sipila)
• Wednesday, 5 p.m. — Canada vs. China (Yu Han/Zhiyu Wang)
• Thursday, 1 p.m. — Canada vs. Scotland (Jennifer Dodds/Bruce Mouat)
• (If Canada qualifies)
• Friday, 9 a.m. — Playoff qualification games
• Friday, 5 p.m. — Semifinals
• Saturday, 8:30 a.m. — Bronze-medal game
• Saturday, 1 p.m. — Gold-medal game

World Curling’s live-streaming platform The Curling Channel will be the only way to watch games from the World Mixed Doubles Championship.

For the latest scores, draw and list of teams, CLICK HERE.

World Senior Women’s and Men’s Championship

A year after two rookie teams captured gold medals in Sweden, Canada’s Team Ford Johnston and Team Bryden will be looking to replicate the feat in Fredericton, and add to Canada’s rich history of success at the World Seniors.

The World Senior Championships started in 2002, and since then, Canada has won 15 women’s gold medals and 14 men’s gold medals. The next highest total in each gender is three — Scotland in women’s play and the United States in men’s play.

Both 2025 Canadian teams earned their World Seniors Championships berths by claiming gold at the 2024 Canadian Senior Championships earlier this season in Moncton, N.B.

There’s no shortage of international experience on Canada’s women’s team. Ford Johnston was a longtime alternate for Sandra Schmirler’s Saskatchewan powerhouse team, and won Olympic gold in 1998 and a world championship a year earlier. Ford Johnston also skipped Canada to a bronze medal at the 1991 World Junior Championships.

Lead Cori Morris, meanwhile, was an Olympic silver-medallist throwing lead rocks for Canada’s Team Cheryl Bernard in 2010 at Vancouver.

As well, team alternate/coach Lesley McEwan will be returning to Fredericton, where she won World Seniors gold playing second for Canada’s Team Cathy King — a team that also included Morris’s mother-in-law Carolyn Morris.

Vice-skip Shannon Morris (no relation to Cori) and second Sheri Pickering round out the Canadian team.

A total of 16 women’s teams are competing in Fredericton, split into three groups — two of five teams each and one of six. After the five-game round robins (the two five-team groups will play a single round-robin crossover game to fill out the schedule) are complete, the top two teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals, along with the two third-place teams with the best Last-Shot Draw totals.

Canada is in a group with the Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Japan and Sweden.

Here is the schedule for the Canadian women (all times ET):

• Sunday, 7 a.m. — Canada vs. Japan (Team Miyako Yoshimura)
• Monday, 11 a.m. — Canada vs. Sweden (Team Camilla Noreen)
• Tuesday, 7 p.m. — Canada vs. Czech Republic (Team Hana Cechova)
• Wednesday, 11 a.m. — Canada vs. New Zealand (Team Joanna Olszewski)
• Thursday, 3 p.m. — Canada vs. Hong Kong (Team Ling-Yue Hung)
• (If Canada qualifies)
• Friday, 8 a.m. — Quarterfinals
• Friday, 6:30 p.m. — Semifinals
• Saturday, 9 a.m. — Gold-medal, bronze-medal games

Bryden’s Canadian men’s team, rounded out by vice-skip Troy Robinson, second Russ Bryden (Randy’s brother), lead Chris Semenchuck and alternate Glen Hill, is taking aim at a sixth straight World Senior Men’s gold medal for Canada, a stream that includes wins by Team Wade White in 2018 and 2022, Team Bryan Cochrane in 2019, Team Howard Rajala in 2023 and Team Flemming last year.

Canada’s Team Rob Armitage won men’s gold in the 2013 World Seniors in Fredericton.

There will be 31 men’s teams competing in Fredericton, split into five pools — one with seven teams and four with six. Following the round robins in each group, the top two teams in each group plus the two third-place teams with the best Last-Shot Draw totals will reach the playoffs.

The four pool winners with the best Last-Shot Draw totals will get byes to the quarterfinals, while other eight teams will start in the playoff qualification round.

Canada’s pool includes Belgium, England, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Wales.

Here is the schedule for the Canadian men (all times ET):

• Saturday, 5 p.m. — Canada vs. Belgium (Team Stefan Van Dijck)
• Sunday, 7 p.m. — Canada vs. Portugal (Team Vitor Santos)
• Monday, 3 p.m. — Canada vs. England (Team Ken Horton)
• Tuesday, 7 a.m. — Canada vs. Wales (Team Andrew Tanner)
• Wednesday, 11 a.m. — Canada vs. Ireland (Team Bill Gray)
• Thursday, 11 a.m. — Canada vs. the Netherlands (Team Bob Bomas)
• (If Canada qualifies)
• Thursday, 7 p.m. — Playoff qualification games
• Friday, noon — Quarterfinals
• Friday, 6:30 p.m. — Semifinals
• Saturday, 9 a.m. — Gold-medal, bronze-medal games

Canada’s men’s team has played in the gold-medal game in all 20 previous editions of the World Senior Championships, winning 14 of those finals.

There is no streaming coverage planned for the World Senior Championships. For the latest scores, draw and list of teams, CLICK HERE.