Sanctions now apply through Dec 31
The new board of the World Curling Federation has voted to continue curling’s ban of Russia and Belarus curling teams through the end of the calendar year.
The formal passing of rule C1(b) at the recent WCF Annual General Assembly follows the rule’s emergency introduction in early March of 2022, which saw the two countries banned from multiple world championship events that began later that month.
“The World Curling Federation strongly condemns the military action undertaken by the Russian Government in their invasion of Ukraine and continues to hope for a swift and peaceful resolution to the situation,” said WCF at the time.
Friday’s announcement notes the WCF board is “continually monitoring Member Association and athlete concerns relating to the conflict in Ukraine and reserve the right to revisit their decision if required.”
The next ranked team from the previous edition of the qualifying championship—if a previous qualification championship took place—will replace the Russian and Belarusian teams in the affected championships. If no qualification championship took place, the replacement team will be determined by the world rankings.
The decision means new opportunities for other nations. In the upcoming European Curling Championships A-Division, taking place in Östersund, Sweden in November, the Russian women’s team will be replaced by Hungary, while the men’s team will be replaced by Spain.
Rule C1(b) states:
“The Board of the WCF may remove a team or Member Association from any WCF event if in the sole opinion of the Board their presence at the event would damage the event or put the safety of the participants or the good order of the event at risk.”
Russia’s February 24 invasion of fellow WCF member association Ukraine led to a flurry of sanctions across the sport world.