2021 World Women's Curling Championship

The World Women's Curling Championship is the first event of the qualification process for curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing; the National Olympic Committees representing the teams who finish in the top six will qualify directly to the Olympic tournament. The remaining teams that had qualified for the 2020 or 2021 World Women's Curling Championship, and have not yet qualified for the Olympics, will compete in the Olympic Qualification Event in December 2021 for the remaining three spots. If the team representing China (who already qualified as host nation) finishes in the top six, the sixth direct qualification spot from the world championship will be held over to the Olympic Qualification Event. During Draw 9 on Sunday, 2 May, Team Switzerland, skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni, scored a rare eight-ender (in which all eight of the team's rocks ended up scoring) in the seventh end of their game against Denmark's Madeleine Dupont. Denmark immediately conceded, with the final score of the match being 13–4. It was the first eight-ender scored in World Curling Championships history (men or women). Switzerland and RCF were the top two teams after the round robin, finishing with 12–1 and 11–2 records, respectively. After the round robin, Switzerland defeated the United States 7–3, and RCF defeated Sweden 8–7 to get to the final. They did not need to throw their last however, as Switzerland won the game after Kovaleva came up short on her final shot in the 10th end, a freeze attempt on a Swiss shot rock. Tirinzoni is only the fifth skip, and first Swiss, to win back-to-back Women's Championships. Switzerland has won six of the last nine Women's Championships. The cancelling of the 2020 World Championships allowed Team Tirinzoni to win back to back World Championships, as they had lost the 2020 Swiss Women's Curling Championship to Elena Stern, thus not qualifying for Worlds that year. Switzerland's fourth stone thrower Alina Pätz won the Frances Brodie Award for sportsmanship. ==Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic==

Re-location to Calgary The event was originally scheduled to be held 20–28 March 2021 at the Curlinghalle Schaffhausen in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. On 8 February 2021 the World Curling Federation (WCF) announced that the tournament had been cancelled, as permission to host an international sporting event had been withdrawn by local health authorities due to concerns surrounding SARS-CoV-2 variants. On 1 March 2021, it was reported that Curling Canada had made a proposal to re-locate the event to Calgary, Alberta, using the same "bubble" that has been established for the World Men's Championship and all other major national championships this season. On 5 March, the WCF officially announced that the World Women's Championship would be re-located to Calgary, and rescheduled to 30 April—9 May 2021. Positive tests, suspension of television coverage Prior to the competition, two members of the German team tested positive for COVID-19. The team was barred from the first day of practice, 28 April. On 29 April, the WCF announced that the three remaining players on the German team would be allowed to continue to represent their country as a three-player team. On 2 May, several members of the host broadcast crew of the event tested positive for COVID-19, which resulted in the postponement of the morning draw in order to allow additional testing of players and staff. None of the players were among those who tested positive, The postponed matches were rescheduled to the evening session of 7 May. Television coverage ultimately resumed on the morning of May 7 with Alberta Health approving a proposal which minimal staff involvement for the remaining three days of the event. ==Qualification==

14 curling federations qualified to participate in the 2021 World Women's Curling Championship. This was the first World Women's Championship appearance for Estonia, who was represented by skip Marie Turmann. Pursuant to a December 2020 ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport due to the Russian doping scandal, Russia is prohibited from competing under its flag or any national symbols at any Olympic Games or world championships through 16 December 2022, and therefore competed neutrally. The team is therefore representing the Russian Curling Federation (RCF). World Ranking The World Curling Federation World Ranking tracks and lists the success of all Member Associations. ==Teams==

The teams were as follows: 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. ==Round-robin standings==

All draw times are listed in Mountain Daylight Time (UTC−06:00). Draw 1 Friday, 30 April, 9:00 am Draw 2 Friday, 30 April, 2:00 pm Draw 3 Friday, 30 April, 7:00 pm Draw 4 Saturday, 1 May, 9:00 am Draw 5 Saturday, 1 May, 2:00 pm Draw 6 Saturday, 1 May, 7:00 pm Draw 8 Sunday, 2 May, 2:30 pm Draw 9 Sunday, 2 May, 7:30 pm Draw 10 Monday, 3 May, 9:00 am Draw 11 Monday, 3 May, 2:00 pm Draw 12 Monday, 3 May, 7:00 pm Draw 13 Tuesday, 4 May, 9:30 am Draw 14 Tuesday, 4 May, 2:30 pm Draw 15 Tuesday, 4 May, 7:30 pm Draw 16 Wednesday, 5 May, 9:00 am Draw 17 Wednesday, 5 May, 2:00 pm Draw 18 Wednesday, 5 May, 7:00 pm Draw 19 Thursday, 6 May, 9:00 am Draw 20 Thursday, 6 May, 2:00 pm Draw 21 Thursday, 6 May, 7:00 pm Draw 22 Friday, 7 May, 9:00 am Draw 23 Friday, 7 May, 2:00 pm Draw 7 Friday, 7 May, 7:00 pm – originally scheduled for Sunday, 2 May, 9:00 am. ==Playoffs==

Qualification Games Saturday, 8 May, 9:00 am Semifinal 1 Saturday, 8 May, 3:00 pm Semifinal 2 Saturday, 8 May, 7:30 pm Bronze medal game Sunday, 9 May, 8:30 am Final Sunday, 9 May, 1:00 pm ==Statistics==

Top 5 player percentages Final Round Robin Percentages Perfect games Minimum 10 shots thrown ==Notes==