August 13, 2008

PERTH, Scotland – The World Curling Federation (WCF) has announced the first-ever challenge from a South American member association, Brazil, issued against the United States of America for a berth in the upcoming 2009 Ford World Men’s Curling Championship.

Twelve teams compete at both the men’s and women’s world curling championships each year. Two teams represent the Americas Zone, encompassing both North and South America. Since the inception of the world championships, the only two WCF member associations to represent the Americas have been Canada and the United States.

Canada, winner of both the 2007 and 2008 world men’s titles, has qualified for the 2009 Ford Worlds in Moncton, Canada in April. Brazil, a WCF member since 1998, will challenge the U.S. for the second Americas berth in Moncton. The United States will host the challenge series in January 2009 at a location to be determined.

“The Brazilian challenge marks another milestone in the development of world curling,” said Les Harrison, WCF President.

“We will follow Brazil’s on-ice debut with interest, and we wish both competing member associations and their athletes the best in their qualification efforts.”

“We believe we are ready,” said Eric Maleson, president of the Brazilian Ice Sports Federation.

“We are confident that this will take curling in Brazil and in the Pan-American continent to a new level.”

All five Brazilian nationals are currently studying at the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec, Canada. They train at the Lennoxville Curling Club.

This is the first challenge involving the United States Curling Association (USCA) since an Italian junior team challenged for the final place at the 1998 World Juniors. USCA selected a host venue specifically located within an Italian-American community, and arranged hosted accommodation for the athletes.

The United States won the challenge, and earned their place in the 1998 Juniors.

“We welcome the first-ever challenge from a South American team and look forward to hosting Brazil,” said Rick Patzke, USCA Chief Operating Officer.

“The possibility of a challenge existed throughout the 1990s when Mexico was a WCF member, but it never came to pass. This is not an unexpected development, and we are pleased with the continued growth of the sport.”

The challenge will comprise a best-of-five series of matches, held over a three-day competition in January.

U.S. men have won four world curling championships, the first coming in 1965. They also scored Olympic bronze at Turin in 2006, led by skip Pete Fenson of Bemidji, Minnesota.