Team Canada now has six wins and zero losses at the 2024 World Women’s Curling Championships in Sydney, Nova Scotia. But what they achieved on Tuesday was simply extraordinary. Canada beat not just one undefeated team, but two.
In the morning draw, Canada beat Italy 8-7 in 11 finals. In the evening they beat Switzerland 8:5. Italy and Switzerland had a record of four wins and zero losses and six wins and zero losses respectively before their games against Canada.
In Canada’s victory over Italy, Canada had crucial steals in the fourth and seventh rounds, as Italian ski jumper Stefania Constantini was unable to remove a Canadian stone from the four-footer. In Canada’s victory over Switzerland, the seventh end was the decisive end, as Canada put significant pressure on a Swiss team skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni. Third player Tracy Fleury went through a very small port (two Swiss guards) to takeout, and then Swiss fourth player Alena Paetz failed to remove a Canadian stone with her first stone, leading to the big Canadian finish.
To put Homan’s win over Switzerland in perspective, this was Switzerland’s first loss at the World Women’s Curling Championship since May 4, 2021, when Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg defeated Tirinzoni 8-3 in Calgary, Alberta. Like Homan, Hasselborg had a four-ender. Switzerland remained undefeated at the 2022 and 2023 World Women’s Curling Championships. The Tirinzoni team had a 42-game winning streak during this period.
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