The 2021 World Men's Curling Championship (branded as the 2021 BKT Tires & OK Tire World Men's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held from April 2 to 11 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Canada. The event was originally to be held in Ottawa, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the championship was moved to Calgary. The event was scheduled to be held in a bio-secure bubble at Canada Olympic Park, which also hosted all major Curling Canada championships leading up to the Worlds (including the 2021 Tim Hortons Brier, which determined Canada's entrant). All events were held behind closed doors with no spectators.

The 2021 championship fielded the largest number of teams in the history of the event, with fourteen total. Niklas Edin, skip of Team Sweden, and his third, Oskar Eriksson, won a record fifth career World Championship. The team, which also consisted of Rasmus Wranå and Christoffer Sundgren, won a record third straight championship. They defeated Team Scotland, skipped by Bruce Mouat in the final, 10–5. With the game tied at 5 in the ninth end, Edin made a double takeout with the last rock of the end to score five. Down by 5 with just one end to go, Team Scotland then conceded the game. Switzerland, skipped by Peter de Cruz, won the bronze medal.

The championship served as one of two qualification events for curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The National Olympic Committees representing the top six finishers at the tournament qualified directly for the Olympic tournament. In order of ranking, this included Sweden, Great Britain, Switzerland, the ROC, the United States, and Canada. The remaining teams that had qualified for the 2020 or 2021 World Championships competed in the World Curling Federation's Olympic Qualification Event in December 2021 for the remaining three spots.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic On April 9, the World Curling Federation announced that a positive COVID-19 test had been recorded by a player on a non-playoff team, and that the second qualification match between the United States and Switzerland would therefore be postponed. The World Curling Federation postponed all games scheduled for April 10 due to additional positive tests involving a member of a playoff team. There were three initial positives from players on non-playoff teams who were tested as part of the exit protocols, and four close contacts were also identified.

On April 11, following approval by Alberta Health Services (AHS), the World Curling Federation announced that play would resume, with all remaining games being played throughout the day. One playoff team member who had been fully vaccinated initially tested positive, but later tested negative and was cleared to participate in the playoffs. Enhanced biosecurity protocols were mandated for the remainder of the tournament, including additional tests before and after each game, and requiring masks to be worn on-ice. Canadian broadcaster TSN pulled its camera crew for the U.S./Switzerland match, and announced that the game would not be televised due to unspecified "COVID-19 issues"; the game was still broadcast via the WCF host feed.

On April 12, all four tests were deemed false positives following an extensive review by health authorities. Team USA third Christopher Plys announced on Twitter that he was the playoff-bound curler who had tested positive.

Qualification The following nations qualified to participate in the 2021 World Men's Curling Championship:

Pursuant to a December 2020 ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Russia is prohibited from competing under its flag or any national symbols at any Olympic Games or world championships through December 16, 2022, and must compete neutrally. The World Curling Federation listed the Russian team as the abbreviation "RCF", for the Russian Curling Federation.

Means of qualification Vacancies Qualified Host Nation 1 Americas 1 Europe 8 Pacific-Asia 2 World Rankings 1 RCF 2020 World Qualification Event 1 TOTAL 14

World Ranking The World Curling Federation World Ranking tracks and lists the success of all Member Associations.

Member Associations Rank Points 1 89.020 2 75.980 3 71.029 4 65.196 5 52.059 6 44.118 7 40.392 8 35.343 9 34.461 10 24.520 RCF 11 19.412 12 18.578 13 18.358 14 16.951

Teams The teams are as follows:

Saville Community SC, Edmonton Skip: Brendan Bottcher Third: Darren Moulding Second: Brad Thiessen Lead: Karrick Martin Alternate: Marc KennedyHarbin CC, Harbin Skip: Zou Qiang Third: Tian Jiafeng Second: Wang Zhiyu Lead: Xu Jingtao Alternate: Han PengGentofte CC, Gentofte & Hvidovre CC, Hvidovre Fourth: Mikkel Krause Third: Tobias Thune Skip: Mads Nørgård Lead: Kasper Wiksten Alternate: Oliver Rosenkrands SøeBaden Hills G&CC, Füssen Skip: Sixten Totzek Third: Marc Muskatewitz Second: Joshua Sutor Lead: Dominik Greindl Alternate: Klaudius HarschTorino-Pinerolo CC, Pinerolo & Aeronautica Militare Skip: Joël Retornaz Third: Amos Mosaner Second: Sebastiano Arman Lead: Mattia Giovanella Alternate: Fabio Ribotta RCFTokoro CC, Tokoro Skip: Yuta Matsumura Third: Tetsuro Shimizu Second: Yasumasa Tanida Lead: Shinya Abe Alternate: Kosuke AitaCC PWA Zoetermeer, Zoetermeer Fourth: Wouter Gösgens Skip: Jaap van Dorp Second: Laurens Hoekman Lead: Carlo Glasbergen Alternate: Tobias van den HurkOppdal CC, Oppdal Skip: Steffen Walstad Third: Torger Nergård Second: Markus Høiberg Lead: Magnus Vågberg Alternate: Eirik MjøenAdamant CC, Saint Petersburg Skip: Sergey Glukhov Third: Evgeny Klimov Second: Dmitry Mironov Lead: Anton Kalalb Alternate: Daniil GoriachevGogar Park CC, Edinburgh Skip: Bruce Mouat Third: Grant Hardie Second: Bobby Lammie Lead: Hammy McMillan Jr. Alternate: Ross WhyteUijeongbu CC, Uijeongbu Skip: Jeong Yeong-seok Third: Kim Jeong-min Second: Park Se-won Lead: Lee Jun-hyung Alternate: Seo Min-gukKarlstads CK, Karlstad Skip: Niklas Edin Third: Oskar Eriksson Second: Rasmus Wranå Lead: Christoffer Sundgren Alternate: Daniel MagnussonCC Genève, Geneva & Interlaken CC, Interlaken Fourth: Benoît Schwarz Third: Sven Michel Skip: Peter de Cruz Lead: Valentin Tanner Alternate: Pablo LachatDuluth CC, Duluth Skip: John Shuster Third: Chris Plys Second: Matt Hamilton Lead: John Landsteiner Alternate: Colin Hufman

WCF ranking Year to date World Curling Federation order of merit ranking for each team prior to the event. Rankings based on the 2019–20 season.

Nation (Skip) Rank Points (Bottcher) 4 347.979 (Mouat) 5 343.005 (Edin) 8 304.836 (de Cruz) 9 289.136 (Matsumura) 16 202.961 (Shuster) 19 181.864 (van Dorp) 28 133.398 (Retornaz) 30 130.346 (Walstad) 32 129.878 (Zou) 42 106.111 RCF (Glukhov) 44 102.341 (Totzek) 88 52.322 (Nørgård) 122 33.972 (Jeong) 275 7.268

Round-robin standings Final round-robin standings KeyTeams to Playoffs

CountrySkip Niklas Edin 11 2 1–0 102 63 59 48 8 13 89% 21.83 Sergey Glukhov 11 2 0–1 103 73 60 47 3 18 83% 24.41 John Shuster 10 3 – 93 75 55 50 5 11 84% 33.89 Brendan Bottcher 9 4 1–0 96 75 55 49 12 17 86% 21.02 Bruce Mouat 9 4 0–1 95 68 56 48 8 15 87% 19.36 Peter de Cruz 8 5 – 90 72 57 51 6 12 85% 18.25 Joël Retornaz 7 6 1–0 78 64 46 46 13 13 84% 32.15 Steffen Walstad 7 6 0–1 91 77 59 50 10 13 82% 25.43 Yuta Matsumura 6 7 – 74 85 45 54 5 8 83% 36.91 Sixten Totzek 4 9 – 81 92 50 58 6 11 80% 53.87 Mads Nørgård 3 10 – 69 95 44 56 6 9 77% 59.96 Jaap van Dorp 2 11 1–1 66 99 47 53 2 9 81% 33.15 Jeong Yeong-seok 2 11 1–1 53 110 39 55 8 4 78% 33.75 Zou Qiang 2 11 1–1 58 96 47 56 4 7 80% 42.55

+ Round Robin Summary Table Pos. Country Record 4 9–4 14 2–11 11 3–10 10 4–9 7 7–6 9 6–7 12 2–11 8 7–6 2 11–2 5 9–4 13 2–11 1 11–2 6 8–5 3 10–3

Round-robin results

All times listed in Mountain Daylight Time (UTC−06:00).

Draw 1 Friday, April 2, 9:00 am

Draw 2 Friday, April 2, 2:00 pm

Draw 3 Friday, April 2, 7:00 pm

Draw 4 Saturday, April 3, 9:00 am

Draw 5 Saturday, April 3, 2:00 pm

Draw 6 Saturday, April 3, 7:00 pm

Draw 7 Sunday, April 4, 9:00 am

Draw 8 Sunday, April 4, 2:00 pm

Draw 9 Sunday, April 4, 7:00 pm

Draw 10 Monday, April 5, 9:00 am

Draw 11 Monday, April 5, 2:00 pm

Draw 12 Monday, April 5, 7:00 pm

Draw 13 Tuesday, April 6, 9:00 am

Draw 14 Tuesday, April 6, 2:00 pm

Draw 15 Tuesday, April 6, 7:00 pm

Draw 16 Wednesday, April 7, 9:00 am

Draw 17 Wednesday, April 7, 2:00 pm

Draw 18 Wednesday, April 7, 7:00 pm

Draw 19 Thursday, April 8, 9:00 am

Draw 20 Thursday, April 8, 2:00 pm

Draw 21 Thursday, April 8, 7:00 pm

Draw 22 Friday, April 9, 9:00 am

Draw 23 Friday, April 9, 2:00 pm

Playoffs

Qualification Game 1 Friday, April 9, 7:00 pm

Qualification Game 2 Sunday, April 11, 11:00 am

Semifinals Sunday, April 11, 4:00 pm

Bronze medal game Sunday, April 11, 9:00 pm

Final Sunday, April 11, 9:00 pm

Statistics Top 5 player percentages Final round robin percentages Leads % Christoffer Sundgren 92.1 Valentin Tanner 91.9 Hammy McMillan Jr. 91.7 Karrick Martin 90.7 Xu Jingtao 89.4 Seconds % Rasmus Wranå 89.3 Brad Thiessen 86.7 Dmitry Mironov 85.5 Sebastiano Arman 85.4 Bobby Lammie 85.4 Thirds % Oskar Eriksson 89.1 Grant Hardie 86.2 Amos Mosaner 84.7 Darren Moulding 83.5 Chris Plys 83.4 Skips % Brendan Bottcher 85.2 Bruce Mouat 85.1 Niklas Edin 84.5 Sergey Glukhov 82.0 John Shuster 81.1

Perfect games Minimum 10 shots thrown Player Team Position Shots Opponent Lee Jun-hyung Lead 14 RCF Grant Hardie Third 14 Sebastiano Arman Second 20 Brendan Bottcher Skip 12 Christoffer Sundgren Lead 12 Tetsuro Shimizu Third 18 Amos Mosaner Third 16 Bruce Mouat Skip 18 Valentin Tanner Lead 16 Christoffer Sundgren Lead 10

Awards The awards were as follows:

Collie Campbell Memorial Award Oskar Eriksson, Sweden

Notes

References

External links