Currently in curling …

VERY UNOFFICIAL SUBJECTIVE RANKINGS

LATEST POSTS

• The NWSL, USA Curling and the dangers of inadequate investigations
• USA Curling flings one through the house

MAJOR UPCOMING EVENTS

---

Current very unofficial U.S. rankings, drawn from year-to-date Order of Merit (YTD, OOM) and a subjective look at results. HP – in High Performance program. Date: Jan. 23, 2019.

Andrew Stopera and Cait Flannery won the U.S. junior championships to qualify for the World Junior Championships. Those conflict with the U.S. Championships, so they’re going to Worlds. Stopera had already qualified for the U.S. Championships, so their change of plans opened a place Brandon Corbett, who got in after being so close to qualifying from the Challenge Round with only three players. USA Curling has already planned to name one junior wild-card team in each event, and those spaces went to Ariel Traxler and Sam Strouse.

Men
1. John Shuster – HP; 2018 Olympic gold medalist (aq)
2. Rich Ruohonen – HP; 2018 U.S. champion (aq)
3. Mark Fenner – HP; Has three recently graduated juniors (aq)
4. wjr-Andrew Stopera – HP juniors; U.S. junior champion (aq)
5. Todd Birr – Third in 2018 U.S. (cq)
6. Scott Dunnam – 1-8 in 2018 U.S. (aq)
7. Chase Sinnett – HP juniors (cq) 
8. Steve Birklid – Lead Nicholas Connolly skipped to sixth in 2018 U.S. (cq)
9. Jed Brundidge – Reached 2018 U.S. tiebreaker (cq)
10. Brandon Corbett – Played much of CR with 3 and lost heartbreaker (wc)
11. e-Jason Smith – Minnesota; beat Steinhaus and Beighton at CR 
12. e-Nick Steinhaus – Second in juniors; Slusar sometimes listed as skip
13. e-Sean Beighton – 2018 U.S. semifinalist with Kroy Nernberger as skip
14. dne-Dominik Maerki – 2018 Olympic alternate … for Switzerland
15. e-Stephen Imes – Ohio; beat Steinhaus and Corbett in CR
16. e-Kevin Kakela – North Dakota; beat Corbett and Sobering in CR
17. e-Craig Nicko – Minnesota; beat Siggins and Kakela in CR
18. Sam Strouse – 3rd in U.S. juniors with Andrew McDonald listed skip (wc)
19. e-Daniel Brown – Beat Griffin and Sobering in CR; no other OOM results
20. e-Mike Siggins – This year’s Arizona hopeful; shut out in CR
21. e-Darryl Sobering – Perennial Colorado entry; shut out in CR
22. e-Jared Allen – Former NFL players; shut out in CR
23. e-Clayton Griffin – Georgia; shut out in CR; no other OOM results

Women
1. Nina Roth – HP; 2018 Olympian (aq)
2. Jamie Sinclair – HP; 2018 U.S. champion (aq)
3. Cory Christensen – HP; recently graduated junior (aq)
4. Stephanie Senneker – Upstart underdogs (aq)
5. wjr-Cait Flannery – HP juniors; U.S. junior champion
6. Annmarie Dubberstein – HP juniors (cq)
7. dne–Allison Pottinger – Two-time Olympian
8. Kim Rhyme – Fourth in 2018 U.S. (cq)
9. Ann Podoll – 1-6 in 2018 U.S.; first in CR (cq)
10. Ariel Traxler – Juniors; skip from Alaska (wc)
11. dne–Abbey Kitchens – Juniors
12. dne–Suzanna Viau – Juniors
13. e-Sarah Walsh – California; no OOM results

---

Favorites

• Jennifer Jones (Team Canada) is the defending world and Canadian champion. She also won the Olympics in 2014 and the world title in 2008. Last year’s Scotties win (with Homan absent for the Olympics) was her sixth.
• Rachel Homan (Ontario), a three-time Scotties champion and the 2017 world champion, had a disappointing run in the 2018 Olympics. Being pregnant hasn’t slowed her down this year — she leads the Order of Merit standings by nearly 100 points over Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg.
• Tracy Fleury (Manitoba) beat Einarson (below), Darcy Robertson and Allison Flaxey to win in Manitoba.
• Kerri Einarson (Manitoba) assembled a “team of skips” and will face Casey Scheidegger (Alberta) in the wildcard game.
• Chelsea Carey, who switched a few years ago from Manitoba to Alberta, advanced ahead of Scheidegger and Laura Walker.
• Robyn Silvernagle advanced ahead of a couple of experienced Saskatchewan skips to make her Scotties debut, though vice Stefanie Lawton has been several times skipping her own team.

Intriguing

• Kerry Galusha is a rare player from way North (Northwest Territories) to have an impact. She’s one of the most experienced players in the field and has beaten the favorites from time to time.
• Krista McCarville had little competition in Northern Ontario and hasn’t played much this year, but she has a silver (2016) and bronze from Scotties past.
• Suzanne Birt has represented Prince Edward Island nine times and finished third in 2003. She’s back after a two-year break.
• Sarah Wark is making her debut for British Columbia and has only ventured outside B.C. once this season.
• Jill Brothers is making her fourth appearance for Nova Scotia. She has been playing exclusively in Nova Scotia this season.

Underdogs

• Once-perennial New Brunswick skip Andrea Crawford is back after missing a few years.
• Kelli Turpin is making her debut after winning a Newfoundland/Labrador qualifier lacking experienced skips.
• Quebec representative Gabrielle Lavoie is still a junior and should get good experience for the future.
• Nicole Baldwin is representing Yukon for the third time.
• Jenine Bodner hopes to get the first-ever win for Nunavut.

---

Favorites

• Brad Gushue is the two-time defending champion, 2017 world champion and 2018 world runner-up. (Before all that, 2006 Olympic gold medalist.)
• Kevin Koe, the 2010 and 2016 world and Canadian champion, was fourth in the 2018 Olympics after his upset loss to the USA’s John Shuster in the semis. He changed up his team a bit and got through a moderately difficult qualifier in Alberta that included Brendan Bottcher.
• Brad Jacobs (Northern Ontario) is the 2014 Olympic gold medalist. His vice-skip, Ryan Fry, took time off after an alcohol-related incident while playing for another team.
• Scott McDonald upset Glenn Howard (gold in 2012, world titles in 1987, 1993, 2007) and John Epping in Ontario.
• Reid Carruthers joined forces with Manitoba rival Mike McEwen and still had to get past players like Jason Gunnlaugson and Braden Calvert to qualify.

(Will add the rest of the field next week.)

---

Qualifiers

• Canada: See Scotties above
• USA: See U.S. Championships above (winner not necessarily the qualifier)
• Sweden: Likely 2018 Oly gold medalist Anna Hasselborg
• Switzerland: Likely Silvana Tirinzoni
• Scotland: Likely 2013 world champion and 2014 Oly bronze medalist Eve Muirhead
• Japan: 2018 bronze medalist Satsuki Fujisawa or Sayaka Yoshimura?
• Russia: Five-time world medalist Anna Sidorova or Alina Kovaleva?
• South Korea: Likely 2018 Oly silver medalist Eun-jung Kim
• Germany: Likely Daniela Jentsch
• Denmark: Surely Madeleine Dupont
• Latvia: Four obscure-ish skips contending
• China: Qualified from World Qualification Event
• Finland: Qualified from World Qualification Event

---

Qualifiers

• Canada: See Brier above
• USA: See U.S. Championships above (winner not necessarily the qualifier)
• Sweden: Surely two-time and defending world champion Niklas Edin, the silver medalist behind Shuster in 2018
• Scotland: Bruce Mouat (third in 2018 Worlds) or Ross Paterson?
• Switzerland: Peter de Cruz (third in 2018 Olympics, 2017 Worlds and 2014 Worlds) or rising star Yannick Schwaller?
• Norway: Steffen Walstad (appeared in last two Worlds) or Thomas Ulsrud (the pants, 2010 silver medalist, 2014 world champion, multiple world medals)?
• Japan: Surely Yuta Matsamura
• Germany: Surely Alexander Baumann
• Russia: Alexey Timofeev or Sergei Glukhov?
• China: Somewhat open competition
• Italy: Probably Joel Retornaz
• South Korea: Qualified from World Qualification Event
• Netherlands: Qualified from World Qualification Event

MORE INFO

• CurlingZone has live scores, stats, news and forums.
• More news sites: CBC, TSN
• Wikipedia has a 2018-19 curling page with comprehensive results and links to bios