Team Canada is in the gold medal game of the 2026 Women’s World Curling Championship at the Winsport Event Centre in Calgary, Alberta. On Saturday in the semifinals, Canada trounced Japan 11-3 and will now play Switzerland in the gold medal game at 3pm MT.
It was a perfect game for Canadian lead Karlee Burgess. The native of Truro, Nova Scotia made all 16 of her shots. The game went only eight ends before Satsuki Fujisawa called it a day. Actually Japan was ready to shake after seven ends, but in the most ridiculous rule at the Women’s World Curling Championships, all teams were required to play a minimum of eight ends.
In the eighth end, both teams just went through the motions until Fujisawa attempted a spin-o-rama to excite the crowd. She missed a takeout by inches, and Canada stole one more point.
There was a big discrepancy when it came to percentages at the skip position. Canada’s Kerri Einarson, who is from Gimli, Manitoba, curled 77%. Fujisawa curled at 48%.
Team Canada will play Switzerland in the gold medal game. In the other semifinal, Switzerland defeated Sweden 8-5. Einarson commented to me about the Swiss team skipped by Xenia Schwaller.
“They are a great young team. Like what I said earlier this week, they have to be fearless and they are because they have Tirinzoni in their country. I think Tirinzoni makes them work extremely hard. If they want to get out of the country, they have to play really well. They have been playing really well this week.”
