The world’s best curling teams are set to hit the ice for the Masters, Sept. 23-28, at London’s Western Fair Sports Centre.
Checkout The Masters: Schedule
The Grand Slam of Curling announced Thursday the 64 teams that will compete in the Tier 1 and Tier 2 events that will kick off the milestone 25th season for the series.
The Masters is the first major test of the season for teams on the road to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina. A global field will be on hand for the event with teams from 13 different countries: Canada, China, Czechia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Scotland, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. The Masters will be the first Grand Slam of Curling event since the 2017 National to feature both Chinese men’s and women’s teams.
Ontario’s own Team Homan headlines the women’s field as the top-ranked club. The Ottawa-based team is coming off another sensational season, successfully defending Canadian and world championships, claiming two Grand Slam titles and finishing with an outstanding 75-8 record. Homan has earned a record 17 Grand Slam of Curling women’s titles, including four at the Masters.
The London event will be extra special for Team Homan lead Sarah Wilkes, who calls the Forest City home.
“It’ll be so exciting for me, personally, to have everyone close by and to be able to come and catch all the action,” Wilkes told the audience during Thursday’s media event at The Factory in London. “To have a Slam here in London is so exciting for many reasons, one of them being what I just said, but for all the fans to be able to experience the talent that will be on the ice, the passion, the strategy, will be incredible, which it’s already been said, but I think that the level of play that you will see here will rival any event, including the upcoming Olympic Games.”
Wilkes added that playing in the Grand Slam of Curling, which is owned and operated by The Curling Group, has been “one of the most rewarding experiences” of her career.
“The other athletes are constantly pushing us to be better,” she said. “The level of play is just so incredible, and you have to be at your best every single game.
“Especially as a female athlete, I’m incredibly proud to compete in events where we’re treated equally in terms of the standard that we’re expected to play at, as well as the respect and the opportunities that we’re given. They’re the same as our male counterparts, and I’m so grateful for that. That’s not something that I take for granted, and it’s part of the reason why I’m so passionate about the growth of our game.”
World No. 1 Team Mouat leads the way on the men’s side. Mouat is the reigning world champion and made history in 2024-25 by becoming the first to capture four Grand Slam of Curling titles in a single season.
The Masters was the lone Grand Slam that Mouat didn’t take home. The trophy still wound up in Scotland, however, thanks to Team Whyte. The Stirling squad scored a first Grand Slam title during last season’s event in Guelph, Ont., with a 5-4 win over Canada’s Team Jacobs in the final.
Sweden’s Team Hasselborg returns as the defending women’s champion. Hasselborg earned a 7-5 victory over Homan in last season’s final.
Teams were invited to the Masters based on World Curling’s team rankings.
New for the 2025-26 season is a Tier 2 division, providing the next-ranked teams the opportunity to compete on the Grand Slam of Curling stage and earn valuable points to move up the rankings. The Tier 2 event will run Sept. 23-27 at the St. Thomas Curling Club in St. Thomas, Ont., with the finals held Sept. 28 at the Western Fair Sports Centre alongside the top-tier finals.
That’s not all, as the series will also hold the inaugural GSOC Wheelchair Curling Invitational, featuring four teams in action: Canada Red, Canada White, Great Britain and Italy. Round-robin play will take place Sept. 24-27 at the KW Granite Club in Waterloo, Ont., with the bronze and gold medal games Sept. 28 at the Western Fair Sports Centre, alongside the Masters finals.
“These events are going to highlight that curling can encompass such a wide range of athletes and at different ages and stages of their careers,” Wilkes said. “I think that this is powerful because it will show so many people from all backgrounds and from different sports what curling is all about and why it’s worth being part of.
“The Curling Group has brought such a fresh energy to the Slams in recent years, and you can just feel it in every single event, in the fan experience and the excitement among athletes as well. Every Slam seems to get bigger and better and more exciting, and the energy is just contagious. It keeps us all motivated to push ourselves, and the growth of the sport is just incredible. I’m so proud to be a part of this movement, and I can’t wait to see how this event unfolds in September.”
A full draw schedule will be unveiled in the near future.
Full-event and weekend ticket packages are now on sale. Visit thegrandslam
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