Association Rankings Description
About Association Rankings
World Curling World Rankings track and list the success of all Member Associations.
Points are awarded once per season, per discipline, to Member Associations.
Member Associations are allocated points either, after the qualifier events or after the World Curling Championship for the specific discipline.
In an Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games season additional points are awarded for Member Associations competing at the Games. Great Britain are associated with the association who gathers Olympic and Paralympic Qualification Points. This association is assigned at the beginning of the four-year Olympic and Paralympic cycle and cannot be changed until the beginning of a new cycle.
Member Associations gain points over four seasons and with each new season the value of the points awarded, in the previous years, decreases. Points are worth:
- 100% at the end of the current season
- 75% one year back
- 60% two years back
- 40% three years back
In a given season, once the points have been distributed to each Member Association, that Association’s total is divided by the maximum number of points available over the four-year period and multiplied by 100 to give a percentage score. The percentage scores are then used to determine each world ranking placing.
The World Rankings were developed by 1998 Olympic gold medallist and World Curling Hall of Fame recipient Patrick Huerlimann of Switzerland, who was Vice-President of the World Curling Federation from 2010 to 2012. The World Rankings were first introduced in 2006.
The world rankings system has since been maintained and enhanced by Sweden’s Paul Ahlgren, who administers the rankings on behalf of World Curling.
In each ranking table, any Member Association not on the list has earned 0.000 points and has a joint ranking of one below the final team on the ranking table.