CURLING: Team North America announced for 2014 World Financial Group Continental Cup
For immediate release: December 17, 2013
Perth, Scotland – The line-up for Team North America has been confirmed for the 2014 World Financial Group Continental Cup today, consisting of four teams from Canada and two teams from the USA.
Both Canada and the USA’s Olympic representatives will form part of the six team North America line-up that will face Team World at the Orleans Hotel in Las Vegas between January 16 and 19, 2014.
Representing Canada at the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games will be Brad Jacobs’ team from Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario and Jennifer Jones’s team from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Both teams won the men’s and women’s titles at the Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings (Canadian Olympic Curling Trials) earlier this month.
They will be joined by the USA’s Erika Brown and her team from Madison in Wisconsin, who qualified directly for the Olympic Winter Games at the USA’s Olympic Curling Trials in November.
The men’s winners of that event were John Shuster and his team from Duluth in Minnesota. Unlike the women, who had qualified directly for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, Shuster and his team had to play in the World Curling Federation’s Olympic Qualification Event in Fuessen, Germany last week.
They won their play-off game against Czech Republic in this event to qualify for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
The two other teams forming part of Team North America include two-time World Champion Jeff Stoughton from Winnipeg and World Women’s Curling Championship 2013 bronze medallist Rachel Homan from Ottawa.
Rick Lang of Thunder Bay, Ontario will be the Team North America Coach for the fourth straight WFG Continental Cup, while Steve Brown (Erika Brown’s father) will be the Team North America Captain.
This will be one of the last opportunities for all of the Olympic teams to compete just a couple weeks before the Olympic Winter Games begin in Sochi, Russia in February 2014.
North America has won the World Financial Group Continental Cup five times while Team World have won it four times. No team has ever won consecutive titles therefore it will be all to play for when the event is played for the first time outside of Canada, in the city of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Team North America will face a Team World side, led by Captain David Hay of Scotland and Coach Peja Lindholm of Sweden.
Team World features five teams that will compete at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games: reigning men’s and women’s world champions Niklas Edin of Sweden and Eve Muirhead of Scotland, along with David Murdoch of Scotland, Thomas Ulsrud of Norway and Margaretha Sigfridsson of Sweden. Satsuki Fujisawa of Japan will round out the Team World line-up.
The WFG Continental Cup, a joint venture of the World Curling Federation, Canadian Curling Association and USA Curling, features six teams from North America competing against six teams representing the rest of the world in various disciplines during four days of competition — traditional team games, mixed doubles, singles, mixed skins and standard skins games. Each segment awards points for wins (or ties).
A total of 60 points are available, meaning the side that earns more than 30 points will be declared the champion.
For the six mixed Doubles and six singles matches, one point will be awarded for each victory, one-half point if tied). There will be 18 team games (nine men’s and nine women’s) played, each worth one point for a win and a half-point for a tie. All games are eight ends and there are no extra ends. There will also be six skins games, with each game worth a total of five points to the winner.
The winning side receives $52,000 Cdn ($2,000 per member, including captain and coach), while the losing side gets $26,000 ($1,000 per member, including captain and coach). As well, the side which generates the highest points total from the six Skins games will receive an additional $13,000 ($500 per player, plus captain and coach).
ENDS
Notes to Editors
TEAM LINE-UPS
Team North America Line-ups
Men
Brad Jacobs (Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.)
Ryan Fry
E.J. Harnden
Ryan Harnden
Jeff Stoughton (Winnipeg)
Jon Mead
Reid Carruthers
Mark Nichols
John Shuster (Duluth, Minn.)
Jeff Isaacson
Jared Zezel
John Landsteiner
Women
Jennifer Jones (Winnipeg)
Kaitlyn Lawes
Jill Officer
Dawn McEwen
Rachel Homan (Ottawa)
Emma Miskew
Alison Kreviazuk
Lisa Weagle
Erika Brown (Oakville, Ont./Madison, Wis.)
Debbie McCormick
Jessica Schultz
Ann Swisshelm
Captain: Steve Brown
Coach: Rick Lang
Team World Line-ups
Men
Niklas Edin (Sweden)
Sebastian Kraupp
Fredrik Lindberg
Viktor Kjäll
David Murdoch (Scotland)
Tom Brewster
Scott Andrews
Michael Goodfellow
Thomas Ulsrud (Norway)
Torger Nergård
Christoffer Svae
Håvard Vad Petersson
Women
Eve Muirhead (Scotland)
Anna Sloan
Vicki Adams
Claire Hamilton
Margaretha Sigfridsson (Sweden)
Maria Prytz
Christina Bertrup
Maria Wennerström
Satsuki Fujisawa (Japan)
Miyo Ichikawa
Emi Shimizu
Chiaki Matsumura
Captain: David Hay
Coach: Peja Lindholm
EVENT INFORMATION
For ticket and other event information, visit http://www.curling.ca/2014continentalcup-en/
The Canadian Sports broadcaster, TSN (RDS 2 in French), will provide coverage of the Cup inside Canada and coverage will be available to curling fans outside Canada to enjoy via the World Curling Federation website www.worldcurling.org
ABOUT THE WCF www.worldcurling.org
The World Curling Federation (WCF) is the international sport federation governing the Olympic winter sport of curling and the Paralympic winter sport of wheelchair curling. The WCF is one of seven International Sports Federations currently part of the Winter Olympic programme. It represents 53 Member Associations and is generally acknowledged to direct one of the fastest-growing international winter sports.
For further information please contact:
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Terry Kolesar
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Jon Killoran
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Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition
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Media & Communications
World Curling Federation
Email:
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Tel: +372 592 442 35
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