Swift Current will host 2016 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship

The best women curlers in the world will be returning to Swift Current in 2016.

The Canadian Curling Association announced the 2016 Ford World Women’s Curling Championship will be hosted at the Credit Union iPlex in Swift Current on March 19-27, 2016. Swift Current is a repeat host of the prestigious world championship after successfully hosting the event in 2010.

“We’re very pleased to be coming back here. We had a such a great event here in 2010,” admitted Warren Hansen, Director Event Operations and Media for the Canadian Curling Association.

As a standout host of the event in 2010, that opened the door for Swift Current’s return hosting opportunity in 2016.

“If we’ve got a place that has done a good job and we feel the strength of the sport is good there, we’ll come back in a short period of time, and probably with the same event because we know it works,” Hansen noted.

“I think without question the City, the volunteer group, just did an outstanding job. And I think the citizens of Swift Current came out and supported this event in a big way, in all aspects of it, and I think that’s extremely important to us and something that we thought worked really well here in 2010.”

Canada hosted the 2014 World Championship event in Saint John, New Brunswick, and while the event was a success Hansen felt it lacked the atmosphere which exists during championships hosted on the prairies.

“Curling certainly doesn’t have the strength in Atlantic Canada as it does in Western Canada. And Swift Current is the right size of city, and the right place to make things happen for this event, and for that reason we made an effort to come back here and it all worked out.”

Swift Current Mayor Jerrod Schafer admitted hosting the world championship in 2010 had a profound impact on the City.

“I think it really changed our community. It was such a big event, but such a successful event. Everybody did a good job. It was well run. And everybody had such a wonderful time at it. It was something that we could really be proud of.”