Curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics

Curling was contested at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics at the Innsbruck Exhibition Centre [de] in Innsbruck, Austria from 14 January to 22 January. The mixed team event took place from 14 January to 18 January, while the mixed doubles tournament took place from 20 January to 22 January.^[1]

Curling at the I Winter Youth Olympic Games
Venue	Innsbruck Exhibition Centre [de]
Dates	14–22 January
Competitors	64 from 16 nations
2016 →

The Athlete Role Models for the Youth Olympics curling competition were Eve Muirhead of Great Britain and Uli Kapp of Germany.^[2]

Medal summary

Anastasia Moskaleva

Denise Pimpini

Rachel Hannen

Martin Sesaker

Mako Tamakuma

Kim Eunbi

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
–	Mixed-NOCs (MIX)	1	1	1	3
1	Switzerland (SUI)	1	0	0	1
2	Italy (ITA)	0	1	0	1
3	Canada (CAN)	0	0	1	1
Totals (3 entries)		2	2	2	6

Events

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Mixed team details	Switzerland (SUI) Michael Brunner Elena Stern Romano Meier Lisa Gisler	Italy (ITA) Amos Mosaner Denise Pimpini Alessandro Zoppi Arianna Losano	Canada (CAN) Thomas Scoffin Corryn Brown Derek Oryniak Emily Gray
Mixed doubles details	Michael Brunner (SUI)  Nicole Muskatewitz (GER)	Martin Sesaker (NOR)  Kim Eun-bi (KOR)	Korey Dropkin (USA)  Marina Verenich (RUS)

Format of play

At the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics, there were two tournaments and two sets of medals awarded for each tournament. There was a mixed team curling tournament and a mixed doubles curling tournament.

Mixed team curling

Main article: Curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics - Mixed team

The mixed team curling teams consisted of two boys and two girls from the same NOC/country.

The sixteen qualified teams competed in two divisions of round robin play. The top four teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinals, where the teams played a single knockout tournament to determine the winner.^[1]

Mixed NOC doubles curling

Main article: Curling at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics - Mixed doubles

The mixed NOC doubles curling teams consisted of one boy and one girl from different NOCs. The purpose of mixed-NOCs in mixed doubles was to encourage an international sense of community.

The mixed doubles competition took place after the mixed team competition; the same athletes competing in the mixed event competed in the mixed doubles event. The mixed doubles teams was selected by the organizing committee based on the final rankings from the mixed team competition. The resulting 32 teams played a single knockout round to determine the winner.^[1]

Qualification

To qualify, countries gain points at the European Junior Curling Challenge, Pacific Junior Curling Championships, and the 2011 World Junior Curling Championships.^[3] The NOC then determines the composition of the mixed team, which will consist of two junior women and two junior men curlers.

Summary

Region	Vacancies	Qualified
Host Nation	1	Austria
North America1	2	Canada  United States
South America1	1	Brazil3
Asia2	3	Japan  China  South Korea
Oceania	1	New Zealand
Europe	8	Norway  Sweden  Great Britain  Switzerland  Czech Republic  Russia  Germany  Italy3  Estonia4  Finland4
TOTAL	16

Qualification points

Qualified teams in bold

Region	Countries	Points for qualification
		EJCC Women	EJCC Men	PJCC Women	PJCC Men	WJCC Women	WJCC Men	Total
Host Nation	Austria	Not required
North America1	Canada					18	15	33
	United States					14	13	27
South America1	Brazil3							0
Asia2	Japan			10	6	11		27
	China			4	10		12	26
	South Korea			8	8			16
Oceania	New Zealand			6	4			10
	Australia			2	2			4
Europe	Norway	10				12	16	38
	Sweden					15	20	35
	Great Britain					20	14	34
	Switzerland					14	18	32
	Czech Republic		10			10	10	30
	Russia		8				16	24
	Germany	8	5					13
	Italy3	6	2					8
	Estonia4	2	6					8
	Finland4						11	11
	Poland	3	4					7
	Denmark	5					0	5
	Spain	4	1					5
	Netherlands		3					3
	Slovakia	1	0					1
	France		0			0		0

Notes

^¹ The North American and South American teams are qualified automatically by virtue of their affiliation with the World Curling Federation, since the number of qualification spots equals the number of nations affiliated with the WCF.^[4]
^² The Asian teams are qualified as no more than three nations affiliated in the region chose to participate.^[4]
^³ Brazil declined the invitation to the Winter Youth Olympics, so Italy were invited to replace Brazil, per Italy's World Curling Ranking.^[4]
^⁴ Finland withdrew from the Winter Youth Olympics, so Estonia accepted an invitation to replace Finland, per Estonia's qualification ranking.^[4]