The Aarau curlers led by Silvana Tirinzoni are already two-time world champions. They could secure the first European title in Lillehammer from Saturday. Then only the Olympic victory was missing.

Women’s curling at the highest level has been characterized by an arch rivalry for years: Sweden against Switzerland, Sundbyberg against Aarau, Anna Hasselborg against Silvana Tirinzoni. They don’t even allow their opposition to have crumbs. Hasselborg became Olympic champion in Pyeongchang in 2018 and then twice European champion. Tirinzoni countered with the World Cup titles in 2019 and 2021. In 2020 the World Cup, like the European Championship later, was canceled due to the pandemic. Not even the best Canadian teams could achieve anything at the World Cup tournaments.

It would not be a surprise if the Swedes and Swiss women faced each other in the final of the European Championships starting on Saturday in Lillehammer. It was the same in Tallinn in November 2018. Melanie Barbezat, Esther Neuenschwander, Silvana Tirinzoni and Alina Pätz from CC Aarau won all nine round robin games and also the semi-finals 6: 4 against Germany. The only defeat in the final against the Swedes.

Not many of the ten teams in the European Championship A tournament seem to be able to seriously intervene in the fight for the title. The Scottish women around Skip Eve Muirhead, the former world champion, and the Russians around Alina Kowalewa are most likely to do it.

Genevans face tough competition

The European Championships also have the character of a preparation for the most important event of the season, the Olympic tournament in Beijing starting on February 9th. Both the Aarau women and the Geneva team around Skip Peter De Cruz have been chosen as Swiss Olympic teams.

The Olympic third and current third in the European Championship of CC Geneva will find themselves surrounded by strong opponents in Lillehammer. The number of favorites is greater in the men’s tournament than in the women. The seven-time European champion and five-time world champion Niklas Edin from Sweden towers over all of his small body size by head length. He loses quite often at free tournaments on the World Tour, but only exceptionally in the far more important international championships. It clearly surpasses even the best skips from Canada. If you want to secure the first European title for Switzerland since 2013, Valentin Tanner, Peter De Cruz, Sven Michel and Benoît Schwarz have to get past the outstanding Swedes.

Operation Gold

Geneva has returned with medals from eight out of nine major events, including the 2018 Olympic Games. They are the ultimate guarantor of Swiss medals. However, the well-coordinated team is still missing a gold award. Do you want to make up for it in Lillehammer, when & you leave the strong Scottish crew around Bruce Mouat behind you. Mouat was the last skip to beat Edin in a final at the EM 2018. Edin retaliated against Mouat in the World Cup final in Calgary in April 2021.

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