The record book
Five teams account for a surprising amount of what curlers argue about. Here they are, with the numbers checked rather than copied forward.
Last updated 2026-08-18
The five teams#
Curling has fewer household names than most Olympic sports and a longer memory for them. These five come up constantly.
The Richardsons 1959–1963#
Four Briers and four world championships in five years, by a team of four relatives from Stoughton, Saskatchewan: Ernie Richardson skipping, his brother Garnet at second, and cousins Arnold at third and Wes at lead. Their international record was 21 wins and one loss. Nobody skipped a team to four world titles again for sixty years.
Sandra Schmirler’s rink 1993–1998#
Three world championships in five years and then, at Nagano in 1998, the first Olympic curling gold medal of the modern era — 7–5 over Denmark, won with back-to-back steals. Schmirler died of cancer in March 2000 at thirty-six. The foundation set up in her name has funded several million dollars of neonatal intensive care equipment across every Canadian province and territory, and is now much better known than her curling was.
The Ferbey Four 2001–2005#
Four Briers and three world championships, skipped by Randy Ferbey — unusually, with David Nedohin throwing last stones, an arrangement that was strange at the time and is now unremarkable.
Anette Norberg’s rink 2006–2010#
Olympic gold at Turin and again at Vancouver, making Norberg the first skip to successfully defend an Olympic curling title, on top of three world championships.
Team Edin 2013–2026#
Eight world championships as skip — 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024 and 2026 — which is twice anybody else. Niklas Edin is also the only skip to have won three Olympic medals: bronze in 2014, silver in 2018 and gold in 2022. He stepped back from the sport in 2026.
For sixty years the standard line about Ernie Richardson was that he was the only man to skip a team to four world championships. It was true when it was written and it is still repeated, but Niklas Edin has since won eight. This is the usual failure mode of records pages, which is why the ones here carry the year they were set.
The Olympic table#
Derived from the podiums on the Olympics page rather than transcribed, so the two cannot disagree. The top five, across men's, women's and mixed doubles:
| Nation | Gold | Total medals |
|---|---|---|
| Canada | 7 | 14 |
| Sweden | 6 | 13 |
| Great Britain | 3 | 7 |
| Switzerland | 1 | 9 |
| Norway | 1 | 5 |
The full table, every podium since 1924, and the story of why the 1924 medals took eighty-two years to be recognised are all on that page.
Individual records#
Each with the year it was set, so you can tell when it stops being true.
| Record | Holder | Established |
|---|---|---|
| Most world championships as skip, men | Niklas Edin (Sweden), eight | 2013–2026 |
| Only skip with three Olympic medals | Niklas Edin — bronze, silver, gold | 2014, 2018, 2022 |
| First skip to defend an Olympic title | Anette Norberg (Sweden) | 2006 and 2010 |
| First Olympic curling gold, modern era | Sandra Schmirler (Canada) | 1998 |
| First Olympic curling gold for the United States | John Shuster’s rink | 2018 |
| Most Briers as skip | Brad Gushue, five — passing Ernie Richardson, Randy Ferbey, Kevin Martin and Kevin Koe on four apiece | 2018 onward |
| Most Canadian women’s national titles | Colleen Jones and Jennifer Jones, six each | shared record |
| First Olympic curling gold of any kind | Great Britain, at Chamonix — recognised retrospectively in 2006 | 1924 |
The rarest things in curling#
- 8stones in a perfect end, and all of them must count
- 1team can score in an end, ever
- 3Olympic medals, by one skip, once
The eight-ender#
An end in which one team scores with all eight of its stones. Every stone you throw must finish closer to the button than every stone they throw, which means eight consecutive makes against eight consecutive misses. It is sometimes called a snowman, for the shape of the 8 on the scoreboard.
It is genuinely rare — rarer at club level than a hole in one is in golf, and essentially unheard of between good teams, because a competent skip will throw a stone away rather than allow the eighth. Clubs put them on the wall.
A run of steals#
Less spectacular and arguably harder. Because the hammer never comes to you while you keep stealing, a team clawing back a deficit has to win end after end from the wrong side of the advantage, with no reward except the points. Three in a row against a good team is a remarkable thing to watch.
The totals that change every year#
World championship counts, tour rankings and career totals move every season, and a hand-typed number here would be wrong by the following April. Rather than print one, this page points at the record itself.
Elsewhere#
- World Curling — all-time recordsChampionship totals by association, live and authoritative. This is the primary source for almost every curling statistic in circulation.
- World Curling — results databaseEvery championship game ever played, searchable by team and by player.
- CurlingZoneCareer records on the professional tour, including the events that never reach a world championship.
- The Sandra Schmirler FoundationWhat her name is now mostly attached to, and reasonably so.
Sources#
- Only man to skip team to four world curling championships a rock star in Regina The Globe and MailOn the Richardsons: the four titles in 1959, 1960, 1962 and 1963, the family composition of the team, and the 21–1 international record. Its headline is the record that has since been passed.
- Primary World Men’s Curling Championship 2026: Team Niklas Edin win eighth world title Olympics.com, 2026The eighth title and the years, and the three Olympic medals.
- Curling icon Sandra Schmirler delivered in the biggest moments CBC SportsThe three world championships, the 1998 final against Denmark, and her death in March 2000.
- Norberg, the natural-born skip with a golden record Olympics.comThe 2006 and 2010 golds and the first successful Olympic title defence by a skip.
- Greatest curling moments in Team Canada history Canadian Olympic CommitteeFor Gushue at Turin in 2006 and the Schmirler final at Nagano.