Brad Jacobs and his Alberta-based team will represent Canada at the BKT Tires World Men’s Curling Championship starting Saturday at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
Here’s a capsule look at the 13 teams in the field (countries in alphabetical order, athletes from skip to lead):
AUSTRIA
Mathias Genner, Jonas Backofen, Martin Reichel, Florian Mavec
Austria is making its first world championship appearance since 2002. Genner competed at the Youth Olympic Games in 2012.
CANADA
Brad Jacobs, Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert
The host team earned the right to wear the Maple Leaf by winning the recent Montana’s Brier in Kelowna, B.C. Canada hasn’t won gold at this event since Brad Gushue was victorious in 2017 at Edmonton.
WATCH | Jacobs wins Brier against Team Dunstone:
Trailing with the last rock in the final end, Brad Jacobs squeezed in a great shot to score three and down Matt Dunstone’s Team Manitoba.
CHINA
Xiaoming Xu, Xueqing Fei, Zhiyu Wang, Zhichao Li
Xu guided this team to an upset victory at the Pan Continental playdowns last fall in Lacombe, Alta. Gushue represented Canada but settled for a fourth-place finish.
CZECHIA
Lukas Klima, Marek Cernovsky, Martin Jurik, Lukas Klipa
This will be Klima’s fifth appearance at the men’s worlds. His best record was a 5-7 showing in 2022 at Las Vegas.
GERMANY
Marc Muskatewitz, Benjamin Kapp, Felix Messenzehl, Johannes Scheuerl
It has been a breakout season for the reigning European champions, who are now regulars on the top-flight Grand Slam of Curling circuit.
ITALY
Joel Retornaz, Amos Mosaner, Sebastiano Arman, Mattia Giovanella
This squad will be looking for a strong result as part of the buildup to the Winter Games in Milan/Cortina, Italy, where it will be the host team. Retornaz guided the squad to a bronze medal last year in Schaffhausen, Switzerland.
JAPAN
Riku Yanagisawa, Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Takeru Yamamoto, Satoshi Koizumi
It’s the second world championship appearance for this team, which finished seventh at the 2023 playdowns in Ottawa.
SOUTH KOREA
Hyojun Kim, Eunbin Kim, Jeongim Pyo, Jinhun Kim
Just two years removed from the world junior championship, all four players on this squad are in their early 20s.
NORWAY
Magnus Ramsfjell, Martin Sesaker, Bendik Ramsfjell, Gaute Nepstad
Currently ranked 14th in the world, Ramsfjell won bronze at the European playdowns last year.
SCOTLAND
Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan
The 2023 world champions have a comfortable lead on No. 2 Matt Dunstone of Manitoba in the world rankings. The Scots won silver at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
SWEDEN
Niklas Edin, Oskar Eriksson, Rasmus Wranaa, Christoffer Sundgren
The reigning Olympic and world champions have had a down season but are loaded with big-game experience. Edin is making his 14th career appearance at this competition.
SWITZERLAND
Yannick Schwaller, Benoit Schwarz-Van Berkel, Sven Michel, Pablo Lachat-Couchepin
Schwaller plays third for this fourth-ranked team with Schwarz-Van Berkel throwing last rock. The Swiss side won bronze two years ago.
UNITED STATES
Korey Dropkin, Tom Howell, Andrew Stopera, Mark Fenner
This is Dropkin’s third career appearance at the world championship. He finished fourth in 2022.