The World Curling Federation announced on its official website on the 8th local time that the 2021 Women’s Curling World Championships, originally scheduled to be held in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, from March 19 to 28, had been cancelled because the local health department in Switzerland did not support it.
“The World Curling Federation and the local organizing committee of the event were told that given the current COVID-19 situation and concerns about the spread of new variants of the virus, international sports events will not be approved (in Switzerland).” The World Curling Federation said in a statement.
This is the second consecutive year that the Women’s Curling World Championships have been cancelled.
In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, the 2020 Women’s Curling World Championships, originally scheduled to be held in Canada, were cancelled before the start of the competition.
“We deeply regret that the hard-working athletes missed the opportunity to win the World Championships for the second consecutive year due to the cancellation of the event.” “We will evaluate all possible options to ensure that the women’s team qualification for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics is complete,” said Kate Kesnes, president of the World Curling Federation.
“We will do everything we can to ensure that the process is in the form of events.”
The World Curling Federation said that it is currently negotiating with various stakeholders to study various forms of completing the Winter Olympics qualification selection, including choosing another date to host the Women’s World Championship or replacing it with the Winter Olympic Qualification Trials.
Meanwhile, the preparations for the 2021 Men’s Curling World Championships and Mixed Doubles Championships will continue as planned.
