Canada’s Team Einarson eyes gold at 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship

Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson is one step closer to a world championship after winning their semifinal at the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, presented by Pharmasave, with an 11-3 victory over Japan’s Team Satsuki Fujisawa at Calgary’s WinSport Event Centre.

The Canadian squad from Gimli, Man., — skip Einarson, third/vice-skip Val Sweeting, second Shannon Birchard, lead Karlee Burgess, alternate Krysten Karwacki, coach Reid Carruthers and national coach Viktor Kjell — have qualified for the world championship gold-medal game for the first time in their careers as a team.

“It’s a dream come true,” Einarson said. “It’s something that we’ve worked extremely hard for over the years, and we’ve had some disappointing games previous years and now to finally get ourselves into that gold-medal game is a pretty special feeling.”

For the third year in a row, Canada faces Switzerland in the gold-medal game — this time with different teams. The past two years featured Canada’s Team Rachel Homan against Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni, with Canada winning both in 2024 and ‘25. Now it’s Team Einarson against Switzerland’s Team Xenia Schwaller, who defeated Sweden’s Team Isabella Wranaa 8-5 in the other semifinal.

Canada and Switzerland compete in the gold-medal game on Sunday at 3 p.m. (all times Mountain).

The game bore little resemblance to the tight round-robin meeting between the two sides. Canada controlled it wire-to-wire, opening with a three-ender when Einarson executed a hit on a line of Canadian stones to eject a Japanese rock from the house.

“It’s huge, it’s just phenomenal for this team,” Birchard said of the win. “We’ve had so many cracks at the world championships and just haven’t been able to get past the semifinal, and we came out firing today that first end, and we just never looked back after that, and it’s just amazing to be playing for gold tomorrow.”

In the second end, Japan missed several runbacks and managed just one point after Fujisawa chased a Canadian counter through a port. Japan was deep on a draw in the third, setting Canada up for a potential three. Though Canada overcurled, it still took two to extend the lead.

Japan uncharacteristically struggled, throwing just 67 per cent as a unit, with Fujisawa posting a game-low 45 per cent. Part of the explanation lay in the conditions: the teams played on an outside sheet before a sold-out crowd of 3,004 largely pro-Canadian fans, and that volume of body heat can warm the ice considerably. Combined with stones running straighter than usual, the conditions rewarded whichever team adapted first.

“For this game, we noticed when you played a path quite a few times, it got very straight, so I think they got caught in a couple of those paths early, and we just managed those opportunities better,” Einarson said.

Canada stole two in the fourth after forcing Japan into two difficult shots — a draw that wasn’t quite there due to the lack of curl, or a double raise on a pair of nearly frozen corner guards. Japan opted for the latter and missed, giving up the steal.

Japan scored a single in the fifth and stole one in the sixth, but Canada answered with a draw for three in the seventh to put the game out of reach. Per playoff rules, eight ends are required, so play continued. Fujisawa’s spinorama takeout attempt on her final shot just missed, and Canada added another single.

It will mark the first time Einarson, Sweeting, Burgess and Karwacki will experience the gold-medal game. Birchard won gold as alternate for the 2018 gold-medal-winning team skipped by Jennifer Jones at North Bay, Ont.

“They were phenomenal that week at North Bay and I was so lucky to be along for the ride and to have played in a couple of games I learned a lot from playing with Jen and Jill (Officier) and Dawn (McEwen) and Kaitlyn (Lawes) like they were just my idols growing up and I just looked up to them so much. I really feel like maybe we’ve kind of morphed into a bit of that championship calibre, and I hope we can just put it all out there tomorrow and bring home a gold for Canada.”

Einarson, Sweeting, Birchard and Karwacki have won two bronze medals at worlds in 2022 and ’23. Burgess is competing for her first world women’s medal.

The bronze-medal game between Japan and Sweden is scheduled for Sunday at 9 a.m.

Japan and Sweden reached the semis via qualification wins Saturday morning. Japan defeated Turkey’s Team Dilsat Yildiz 7-5, and Sweden defeated South Korea’s Team Eunji Gim 9-5.

Live scoring, standings and statistics for the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship are available by CLICKING HERE.

TSN and RDS2 will provide coverage of all Team Canada games, and all playoff games, at the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship. CLICK HERE for the broadcast schedule.

For ticket information for the 2026 BKT World Women’s Curling Championship, go to www.curling.ca/2026worldwomen/tickets/.

This story will be available in French as soon as possible at www.curling.ca/fr/2026worldwomen/nouvelles/.