![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nEinarson also represented Canada in a Calgary\u2019s 2021 world championship, which was held in a strict COVID-19 pandemic bubble with no fans.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to having the full experience there,\u201d said Einarson\u2019s third Val Sweeting, who is the lone non-Manitoban on the team. She lives in Edmonton.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely are looking forward to having fans in the stands and wearing the Maple Leaf, and especially in my home province.\u201d<\/p>\n
They won the Scotties Tournament of Hearts on Feb. 1 in Mississauga, Ont. It was the fifth national title for Einarson and Sweeting, the sixth for second Shannon Birchard, but the first for lead Karlee Burgess.<\/p>\n
The 2020 world championship in Prince George was cancelled because of the pandemic when Einarson claimed her first Canadian curling crown in Moose Jaw, Sask.<\/p>\n
Einarson opens Saturday afternoon against Sweden\u2019s Isabella Wranaa, who won Olympic mixed doubles gold in February with brother Rasmus, followed by an evening game against Delaney Strouse of the United States.<\/p>\n
The 13-country field doesn\u2019t include reigning Olympic champion Anna Hasselborg of Sweden or silver medallist Silvana Tirinzoni of Switzerland.<\/p>\n
It does include Italy\u2019s Stefania Constantini, who earned Olympic mixed doubles bronze in Italy after winning gold in 2022. <\/p>\n
China\u2019s Wang Rui was the 2025 bronze medallist at the world championship in Uijeongbu, South Korea. Japan\u2019s Fujisawa Satsuki was an Olympic silver medallist in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely some new teams that we haven\u2019t played in a long time or even on the world stage,\u201d Einarson said. \u201cA lot of first timers there. Our experience over the years will help us going into these worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s Rachel Homan won back-to-back world championship gold in 2025 in Uijeongbu and 2024 in Sydney, N.S. <\/p>\n
\u201cTeam Homan has really set the bar there the last couple of times,\u201d Sweeting said. \u201cWe\u2019d love to keep that gold in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n
Homan earned an Olympic bronze medal in the Milan Cortina Winter Games behind Hasselborg and Tirinzoni.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Einarson also represented Canada in a Calgary\u2019s 2021 world championship, which was held in a strict COVID-19 pandemic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[879,49,2798,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-525623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=525623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/525623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=525623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=525623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=525623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}