Victory no longer a sure thing for Canada

The world championships are simply not what they used to be.

And that is a wonderful thing.

When the world curling championships get under way today in Winnipeg, the centre of curling's universe, it will present itself as a true world competition. Not that it hasn't been that way before, but gone are the days when Canada could roll, stumble or even luck its way into the title. If the Canadian teams didn't win, went the old adage, then the power must have gone out or someone must have kneecapped the front end.

For far too long, the world championships were an afterthought to the Canadian final. You won the Brier, celebrated, and when you woke up a few weeks later, your hangover included a trip to the worlds.

As opposed to the finely tuned Canadian champions, who had survived a hundred or so games each winter en route to winning the national title, many of the teams that lined up across the hog line at the worlds were virtual novices at the sport in comparison.

"There were three or four teams that when you went out and played them, you knew the only way you were going to lose was if one of us broke a leg," said Warren Hansen, the Canadian Curling Association's manager of event operations and media, who represented Canada at the 1974 world championships. "There were probably only four or five teams that were competitive enough to win."

All this is not to say that there haven't been great international rinks. Quite the contrary when you look back at teams skipped by players such as Bud Somerville, Eigil Ramsfjell or Peter Lindholm or Elisabet Gustafson.

But Canadians have won a leading 27 men's titles since 1959 and a record 12 women's crowns since 1979. When they haven't won, they've been close, usually a victim of poor conditions as much as inferior curling.

However, the world is catching up. Check that. The world has caught up. Not only are there teams from around the globe competing, but almost all of them have at least a semi-legitimate chance to win.

Look through the draw and you'll find what might be unfamiliar names to casual curling fans -- Japan, Korea and Russia are fielding teams. While the latter two aren't likely to finish much better than the middle of the pack, the Japanese women's team skipped by Shinobu Aota is impressive and should be among the favourites to challenge Canada's Colleen Jones.

Randy Ferbey and his Canadian men's champions should head into the competition favoured to defend their title, but they, too, will be tested. Norway's Pal Trulsen, gold medal winner at last year's Winter Olympics will be tough if his bad back and achy knees don't give him too much trouble. And expect to see Finland's Markku Uusipaavalniemi, bronze medalist at the 1998 and 2000 worlds, and Scotland's Peter Smith, part of the 1991 world championship rink, come playoff time.

Even those countries that will likely finish out of the running, at least have serious curling development programs, unlike days gone by when many teams were made up of ex-pats and a handful of locals who'd been persuaded to give the sport a try.

The Russian women, for example, have drawn praise for their physical skills and lack only in the strategic end of the game.

"I think there's better coaching, better training and more dedication by the athletes," Hansen said. "And they're getting better competition. You're really only going to be as good as the teams you're playing against."

The main reason for all this interest can be traced to curling's inclusion as an Olympic sport, which means more money from national sport governing bodies as well as from the World Curling Federation, which now receives a lucrative cut of the Olympic pie.

The WCF has been doling out money and resources to aid not only competitive teams but also some grassroots programs. And the result has been a steady growth in the talent of top teams, the overall number of people trying the sport and, what might be most important, the awareness of the game.

This week in Winnipeg, a television crew will tape a one-hour special focusing on the U.S. teams, which will air on NBC on April 20. A previous show on the U.S. national finals in March outdrew a National Hockey League game and the Arena Football League game.

The competition will also be broadcast live into a number of European countries in addition to the full complement of games shown in Canada on TSN and CBC.

The world has come to play in Winnipeg and play it will. The Canadians may very well walk away with a sweep of the titles, but it most definitely won't come easy.