World Curling

The first Olympic Winter Games of Chamonix 1924 brought the first official international competitions for men’s curling teams. Although this was initially considered a demonstration event, more recent evidence has found that curling was a full medal sport that year, and this official status was accepted in 2006 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Another men’s event would later be contested at Lake Placid 1932, but definitely then a demonstration sport.

In 1959, Scotland and Canada launched the Scotch Cup series between their national men’s curling champions. As the competition expanded with the entry of more countries over the following years, the 1959 edition of the tournament would retroactively be considered the first edition of the men’s World Championship.

The sport’s international governing body was established as the International Curling Federation (ICF) on 1 April 1966, in Vancouver, Canada. This followed a meeting in March 1965 in Perth, Scotland, convened by the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC), where six countries (Scotland, Canada, the United States, Sweden, Norway, and Switzerland) agreed to form an international committee under the RCCC. At the 1966 meeting in Vancouver, France joined the original six countries to consider a draft constitution for the ICF. However, the United States opted to participate in an observational capacity only and did not become a full member until 1967. The ICF’s constitution was approved in March 1967 in Perth, and a set of rules for international competition was proposed, which would be adopted at the federation’s annual meeting in 1968, in Pointe-Claire, Quebec, Canada.

The first ever World Women’s Curling Championships (also known as the Royal Bank of Scotland World Women’s Curling Championship) were later staged in 1979.

Now with men and women events, curling returned to the Olympics at Calgary 1988 and Albertville 1992, but still just as demonstrations. Between these two Olympic appearances, in 1990, the name of the organization was changed to the World Curling Federation (WCF).

Curling returned to the Olympic Winter Programme as a full medal sport at the Nagano 1998 Olympics. The sport has also been featured in the programme of the Youth Winter Olympics since the competition’s début at Innsbruck 2012.

The federation also governs the discipline of wheelchair curling since 2000. The first World Wheelchair Curling Championship was held in 2002, and the début of the discipline at the Paralympic Winter Games would come at Torino 2006, with mixed gender teams.

In late 2024, the federation changed its name simply to World Curling. As of January 2026, the organization has 78 national member associations. World Curling is based in Perth, Scotland, and its current president is Beau Welling of the United States.