What is World Curling?
World Curling is the international federation for curling. It describes itself as “the world governing body of the Olympic winter sport of curling and the Paralympic winter sport of wheelchair curling”, and names “three primary curling disciplines, these are team curling, mixed doubles curling and wheelchair curling”.[1] Its rule book also carries separate rules for mixed curling, alongside the men’s and women’s team game.[5]
The federation is governed by a Board which, in its own words, consists of “a President, two Vice-Presidents and eight Directors, which includes the Athlete Commission Chair and two Independent Directors”.[1] Olympedia, an independent Olympic-history database, records Beau Welling of the United States as president since 2022; the federation’s own list of past presidents shows Kate Caithness of Scotland in office from 2010 to 2022.[3][12]
The body has carried three names. It was created as the International Curling Federation, became the World Curling Federation in 1990 and has been World Curling since 2024.[1] The World Anti-Doping Agency’s signatory list still carries the entry as “World Curling Federation (WCF)”.[6]
What does World Curling govern?
World Curling writes the sport’s rules. The current edition, “The Rules of Curling and Rules of Competition”, is dated July 2025 and contains the Rules of Curling (R1–R19), the Rules of Competition (C1–C10), the playdown systems, and separate rules for wheelchair curling, mixed doubles curling and mixed curling.[5] See competition formats and officials and referees.
On anti-doping, rule R18 states that “The use of all performance-enhancing drugs, without therapeutic exemption, whether taken knowingly or otherwise, is unethical and prohibited”, and rule C1(f) that “The World Curling Anti-Doping rules and procedures, which meet the requirements of the World Anti-Doping Agency are applicable and published on the World Curling website.”[5] WADA lists the federation among its Code signatories.[6] See anti-doping.
Its remit extends to Para sport: the International Paralympic Committee states that “Wheelchair curling is governed by World Curling.”[7] The federation’s own history records that the constitutional change of 1982 which declared the federation “an independent entity” also acknowledged the Royal Caledonian Curling Club of Scotland as the “Mother Club of Curling”.[2] Domestic competition is run by the national member associations.
When was World Curling founded and where is it based?
World Curling’s history page states that in March 1965 the Royal Caledonian Curling Club convened a meeting in Perth, Scotland, at which six countries — Scotland, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland — “agreed to a proposal to form an international committee of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, to be called the International Curling Federation”.[2] At a meeting in Vancouver the following year, seven countries — France having joined the original six — declared the federation “to be established as of 1 April 1966”, the history records.[2] Olympedia independently gives the same date and place and the same founding countries.[3]
The history then records that “The Constitution had a significant adjustment in 1982, when the Federation was declared an independent entity and approved as the governing body for curling in the world”.[2] The two renamings followed: World Curling Federation in 1990 and World Curling in 2024; Olympedia dates the second change to late 2024.[1][3] Founding (1966), independence from the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (1982) and the renamings (1990, 2024) are four separate dates.
The federation states that it is based in Perth, Scotland, and Olympedia gives the same headquarters.[1][3] The federation’s constitution, which would state its legal seat and legal form, could not be retrieved.
How is World Curling recognised?
IOC. World Curling calls itself the governing body of “the Olympic winter sport of curling”.[1] No date for the IOC’s recognition of the federation itself appears in the federation’s about, history or presidents pages or in Olympedia’s organisation page, so that date could not be established from a retrieved source.[2][3] The sport’s Olympic status is dated separately. The federation’s history records that curling was granted official medal status on 21 July 1992 for the 2002 Winter Games, with inclusion at Nagano 1998 as an option, and that mixed doubles was accepted in 2015 for PyeongChang 2018.[2] Olympedia states that curling “returned to the Olympic Winter Programme as a full medal sport” at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, and that in 2006 the IOC accepted the 1924 Chamonix tournament as a full medal event.[4][3]
IPC. The International Paralympic Committee names World Curling as the governing body of wheelchair curling, which made its Paralympic debut in Torino in 2006.[7] See IPC.
WADA. The World Anti-Doping Agency lists “World Curling Federation (WCF)” as a Code signatory in its category “WOF members (Winter Olympic Federations)”.[6]
What does World Curling organise?
The federation’s history traces the men’s world championship to the Scotch Cup, held from 1959 to 1967, and dates the women’s world championship to 1979.[2] See World Curling Championships.
World Curling’s results service lists the 2025–26 season’s senior championships, all of which have since been held: the World Women’s Curling Championship 2026 in Calgary, Canada (14–22 March 2026); the World Men’s Curling Championship 2026 in Ogden, Utah, United States (28 March – 5 April 2026); and the World Mixed Doubles and World Senior Curling Championships 2026, both in Geneva, Switzerland (25 April – 2 May 2026).[8] The same season carried curling at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo (4–22 February 2026) and wheelchair curling at the Paralympic Winter Games there (4–14 March 2026).[8]
For 2026–27 the results service schedules the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship 2027 in Lohja, Finland (4–10 January 2027), the World Women’s Curling Championship 2027 in Scotland (13–21 March 2027) and the World Men’s Curling Championship 2027 in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada (26 March – 4 April 2027), with the World Wheelchair, World Junior and World Senior championships also in Scotland.[9] The federation’s events page also lists the European Curling Championships 2026 in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and the Dolomiti Valtellina 2028 Winter Youth Olympic Games.[10] Curling also appears at the FISU World University Winter Games, next in Changchun, China, in January 2027.[9]
Who are its members?
World Curling’s members are national curling associations, which it lists alphabetically by country on its member associations page, without continental groupings or membership categories shown there.[11] The federation’s about page gives no total. Olympedia records that “As of January 2026, the organization has 78 national member associations.”[3]
The membership began with six countries in 1965 — Scotland, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland — and seven, with France, at the formal founding in Vancouver in 1966.[2]
Access to the world championships runs through the member associations and a qualification structure the federation publishes on its events calendar: for 2026 it lists a World Championship Qualifier for men in Aberdeen and for women in Östersund, a World Mixed Doubles Qualification Event in Bratislava, and pre-qualifiers for the Pan Continental zone (Dumfries) and for Europe (Ljubljana).[10] The federation’s World Congress, at which the member associations meet, is listed for Bratislava, Slovakia, in 2026.[10] See Olympic qualification and international federations.
References
- World Curling — About. Accessed 2026-09-30.
- World Curling — History of curling. Accessed 2026-09-30.
- Olympedia — World Curling (organisation page). Accessed 2026-09-30.
- Olympedia — Curling (sport overview). Accessed 2026-09-30.
- World Curling — The Rules of Curling and Rules of Competition, July 2025 (PDF). Accessed 2026-09-30.
- World Anti-Doping Agency — Code signatories. Accessed 2026-09-30.
- International Paralympic Committee — Wheelchair curling. Accessed 2026-09-30.
- World Curling Results — Championships, 2025–26 season. Accessed 2026-09-30.
- World Curling Results — Championships, 2026–27 season. Accessed 2026-09-30.
- World Curling — Events. Accessed 2026-09-30.
- World Curling — Member associations. Accessed 2026-09-30.
- World Curling — Past presidents. Accessed 2026-09-30.