Curling at the 2026 Winter Olympics – Qualification
The curling competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics will feature a total of 30 teams. There will be 10 teams participating in each of the three disciplines: Men's, Women's, and Mixed Doubles. In the Men's and Women's events, each team will consist of 5 athletes, while the Mixed Doubles teams will have 2 athletes each. This means that a total of 120 athletes will be competing across all disciplines.[1]
Summary[edit]
Final summary[edit]
As the host country of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy will have teams participating in all three disciplines of curling. This marks Italy's second participation in the Women's event, with their previous appearance dating back to the 2006 Winter Olympics.
| Nations | Men | Women | Mixed doubles | Athletes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Italy |
 |
|
|
12 |
| Total: 1 NOCs | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
Men[edit]
| Means of qualification | Dates | Location | Quotas | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host nation | — | 1 | Italy
| |
| Qualification points at the 2024 & 2025 World Championships | 30 March–7 April 2024 |  Schaffhausen, Switzerland |
7 | |
| 29 March–6 April 2025 |  Moose Jaw, Canada
| |||
| Olympic Qualification Event | TBA | TBA | 2 | |
| Total | 10 | |||
Women[edit]
| Means of qualification | Dates | Location | Quotas | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host nation | — | 1 | Italy
| |
| Qualification points at the 2024 & 2025 World Championships | 16–24 March 2024 | Sydney, Canada |
7 | |
| 15–23 March 2025 |  Uijeongbu, South Korea
| |||
| Olympic Qualification Event | TBA | TBA | 2 | |
| Total | 10 | |||
Mixed doubles[edit]
| Means of qualification | Dates | Location | Quotas | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host nation | — | 1 | Italy
| |
| Qualification points at the 2024 & 2025 World Championships | 20–27 April 2024 |  Östersund, Sweden |
7 | |
| TBA | TBA | |||
| Olympic Qualification Event | TBA | TBA | 2 | |
| Total | 10 | |||
Qualification timeline[edit]
Source:[2]
| Event | Date | Venue |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 World Women's Curling Championship[3] | 16–24 March 2024 | Sydney, Canada
|
| 2024 World Men's Curling Championship[4] | 30 March–7 April 2024 | Schaffhausen, Switzerland
|
| 2024 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship[5] | 20–27 April 2024 | Östersund, Sweden
|
| 2025 World Women's Curling Championship[6] | 15–23 March 2025 | Uijeongbu, South Korea
|
| 2025 World Men's Curling Championship[7] | 29 March–6 April 2025 | Moose Jaw, Canada
|
| 2025 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship | March/April 2025 | TBA |
| 2025 Pre-Olympic Qualification Event | TBA | TBA |
| 2025 Olympic Qualification Event | December 2025 | TBA |
Qualification system[edit]
Qualification to the curling tournaments at the Winter Olympics will be determined through two methods. Nations will qualify teams by earning qualification points from performances at the 2024 and 2025 World Curling Championships. Teams will also qualify through an Olympic qualification event which will be held in December 2025. Seven nations will qualify teams via World Championship qualification points, while two nations will qualify through a qualification event to be held in December 2025. As host nation, Italy qualified teams automatically, thus making a total of ten teams per discipline in the curling tournaments.[2]
In case of a tie in qualification points, the following criteria will be employed to resolve such ties: firstly, preference will be given to the nation that most recently appeared at the World Championship; secondly, if necessary, preference will be given to the nation that performed better at the 2025 World Championship, if that is a tie then whichever nation preformed better at the 2024 World Championship will win the tie; and finally, if neither of the first two criteria suffice, a playoff will be arranged between the tied teams at a time and venue determined by World Curling.[8]
Qualification points[edit]
The qualification points are allotted based on the nations' final rankings at the Men's and Women's World Championships. The points are distributed as follows:
| Final rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| Points | 15 | 13 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
The qualification points are allotted based on the nations' final rankings at the Mixed Doubles World Championships. The points are distributed as follows:
| Final rank | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| Points | 27 | 23 | 20 | 18 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Note: Scotland, England and Wales all compete separately in international curling. By an agreement between the curling federations of those three home nations, only Scotland can score Olympic qualification points on behalf of Great Britain.
Qualification events[edit]
In order to qualify for the Olympic Qualification Event in the Men's and Women's disciplines, a nation must be ranked between 9th and 13th (or between 8th and 12th if Italy is not ranked in the top 8 teams of the discipline) based on the combined results of the 2024 and 2025 World Curling Championships. Alternatively, they can qualify by finishing in the top 3 at the Pre-Olympic Qualification Event. To be eligible for the Pre-Olympic Qualification Event, a nation must not have already qualified for the Olympics or the Olympic Qualification Event. They must have also qualified for either the 2024 or 2025 World Men's or Women's Championships, or have qualified in the A division of the 2024 or 2025 European Curling Championship or Pan Continental Curling Championships.[2]
In the Mixed Doubles event, a nation can qualify for the Olympic Qualification Event by participating in either the 2024 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship or the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. There will be no Pre-Olympic Qualification Event for this discipline. However, if the Olympic Qualification Event has less than 16 teams participating, the World Curling Federation Mixed Doubles Rankings as of May 1, 2025 will be used to determine the remaining berths until there are at least 16 teams participating in the Olympic Qualification Event.[2]
Qualification results[edit]
| Key | |
|---|---|
| Olympic Host Nation | |
| Nation Qualified for the Olympic Games via Qualification Points from the 2024 & 2025 World Championships | |
| Nation Qualified for the Olympic Games via the Olympic Qualification Event | |
| Nation Qualified for the Olympic Qualification Event | |
|
Nation Qualified for the 2026 Winter Olympics |
Men[edit]
| Country | 2024 | 2025 | Total Points | Pre-OQE | OQE | 2026 OG | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Points | Place | Points | |||||
 Sweden
|
1 | 15 | 15 | → | Q | |||
 Canada
|
2 | 13 | Q | 13 | → | Q | ||
| Italy
|
3 | 11 | 11 | → |
| |||
 Great Britain
|
4 | 10 | 10 | Q | ||||
 Germany
|
5 | 9 | 9 | Q | ||||
 United States
|
6 | 8 | 8 | Q | ||||
 Switzerland
|
7 | 7 | 7 | Q | ||||
 Netherlands
|
8 | 6 | 6 | Q | ||||
 Czech Republic
|
9 | 5 | 5 | Q | ||||
 Norway
|
10 | 4 | 4 | Q | ||||
 Japan
|
11 | 3 | 3 | Q | ||||
 South Korea
|
12 | 2 | 2 | Q | ||||
 New Zealand
|
13 | 1 | 1 | Q | ||||
 Australia
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
 Chinese Taipei
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
 China
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
 Austria
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
Women[edit]
| Country | 2024 | 2025 | Total Points | Pre-OQE | OQE | 2026 OG | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Points | Place | Points | |||||
| Canada
|
1 | 15 | 15 | → | Q | |||
| Switzerland
|
2 | 13 | 13 | Q | ||||
| South Korea
|
3 | 11 | Q | 11 | Q | |||
| Italy
|
4 | 10 | 10 | → |
| |||
| Sweden
|
5 | 9 | 9 | Q | ||||
 Denmark
|
6 | 8 | 8 | Q | ||||
| United States
|
7 | 7 | 7 | Q | ||||
| Great Britain
|
8 | 6 | 6 | Q | ||||
| Norway
|
9 | 5 | 5 | Q | ||||
 Turkey
|
10 | 4 | 4 | Q | ||||
| Japan
|
11 | 3 | 3 | Q | ||||
 Estonia
|
12 | 2 | 2 | Q | ||||
| New Zealand
|
13 | 1 | 1 | Q | ||||
| Chinese Taipei
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
 Mexico
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
| China
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
 Hungary
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
 Lithuania
|
X | 0 | Q | |||||
Mixed doubles[edit]
| Country | 2024 | 2025 | Total Points | WR | OQE | 2026 OG | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Place | Points | Place | Points | |||||
| Sweden
|
1 | 27 | Q | 27 | → | Q | ||
| Estonia
|
2 | 23 | Q | 23 | → | Q | ||
| Norway
|
3 | 20 | Q | 20 | → | Q | ||
| Switzerland
|
4 | 18 | Q | 18 | → | Q | ||
| Canada
|
5 | 16 | Q | 16 | → | Q | ||
| Great Britain
|
6 | 15 | Q | 15 | → | Q | ||
| South Korea
|
7 | 14 | Q | 14 | → | Q | ||
| Italy
|
8 | 13 | Q | 13 | → |
| ||
| Japan
|
9 | 12 | Q | 12 | → | Q | ||
| United States
|
10 | 11 | Q | 11 | → | Q | ||
| Germany
|
11 | 10 | Q | 10 | → | Q | ||
| China
|
12 | 9 | Q | 9 | → | Q | ||
| Netherlands
|
13 | 8 | Q | 8 | → | Q | ||
| Denmark
|
14 | 7 | Q | 7 | → | Q | ||
| Australia
|
15 | 6 | Q | 6 | → | Q | ||
| Czech Republic
|
16 | 5 | Q | 5 | → | Q | ||
| Turkey
|
17 | 4 | 4 | → | Q | |||
 France
|
18 | 3 | 3 | → | Q | |||
| New Zealand
|
19 | 2 | 2 | → | Q | |||
 Spain
|
20 | 1 | 1 | → | Q | |||
Note: Scotland, England and Wales all compete separately in international curling. By an agreement between the curling federations of those three home nations, only Scotland can score Olympic qualification points on behalf of Great Britain.
References[edit]
- ^ "Olympic qualification". World Curling Federation. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "Qualification System - XXV Olympic Winter Games - Milano Cortina 2026" (PDF). World Curling Federation. May 6, 2023. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
- ^ "World Women's Curling Championship 2024". World Curling Federation. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
- ^ "World Men's Curling Championship 2024". World Curling Federation. Retrieved July 12, 2023.
- ^ "World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2024". World Curling Federation. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
- ^ "UIJEONGBU, KOREA TO HOST LGT WORLD WOMEN'S CURLING CHAMPIONSHIP 2025". World Curling Federation. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
- ^ "World Men's Curling Championship 2025". Curling Canada. Retrieved March 9, 2024.
- ^ "Qualification System - XXV Olympic Winter Games - Milano Cortina 2026" (PDF). Olympics. February 12, 2024. Retrieved April 6, 2024.