Canada’s Team Rachel Homan and Italy’s Team Joël Retornaz headline the field as the No. 1 seeds for the HearingLife Tour Challenge.
The Grand Slam of Curling announced Friday the teams for its first event of the season taking place Oct. 1-6 in Charlottetown.
Qualification for the event was based on the World Curling Federation’s team rankings from the final standings of last season.
The HearingLife Tour Challenge is the largest event on the Grand Slam of Curling circuit with 32 men’s teams and 32 women’s teams split into two tiers.
Tier 1 features the top-ranked teams from around the world.
The reigning world champion Homan, from Ottawa, won two Grand Slams last season bringing her count to a record 15 women’s titles in the series.
Retornaz is the event’s defending men’s champion with last year’s title win in Niagara Falls, Ont., kicking off a run of three consecutive Grand Slam championships.
Tier 2 includes the next-ranked group of teams with the winners earning a promotion by receiving invitations to the WFG Masters in January 2025. Among the Tier 2 teams is Charlottetown’s Team Tyler Smith.
The tournament features triple knockout play where teams must win three games before they lose three games to qualify for the playoffs. Eight teams advance to the quarterfinals in each division.
TIER 1 TEAMS
MEN’S DIVISION | SEEDING | WOMEN’S DIVISION |
Retornaz (ITA) | 1 | Homan (CAN) |
Mouat (SCO) | 2 | Tirinzoni (SUI) |
Gushue (CAN) | 3 | Gim (KOR) |
Jacobs (CAN) | 4 | Carey (CAN) |
Whyte (SCO) | 5 | Hasselborg (SWE) |
Edin (SWE) | 6 | Wrana (SWE) |
Y. Schwaller (SUI) | 7 | Kim (KOR) |
McEwen (CAN) | 8 | Einarson (CAN) |
Dunstone (CAN) | 9 | Constantini (ITA) |
Koe (CAN) | 10 | Lawes (CAN) |
Carruthers (CAN) | 11 | X. Schwaller (SUI) |
Craik (SCO) | 12 | Fujisawa (JPN) |
Shuster (USA) | 13 | T. Peterson (USA) |
Brunner (SUI) | 14 | Sturmay (CAN) |
Bryce (SCO) | 15 | Morrison (SCO) |
Dropkin (USA) | 16 | Strouse (USA) |
TIER 2 TEAMS
MEN’S DIVISION | SEEDING | WOMEN’S DIVISION |
Sluchinski (CAN) | 1 | Cameron (CAN) |
Ramsfjell (NOR) | 2 | Kitazawa (JPN) |
Morozumi (JPN) | 3 | Inglis (CAN) |
Waddell (SCO) | 4 | Yoshimura (JPN) |
Kleiter (CAN) | 5 | Brown (CAN) |
Casper (USA) | 6 | Ha (KOR) |
Hösli (SUI) | 7 | Gray-Withers (CAN) |
Muskatewitz (GER) | 8 | Skrlik (CAN) |
Stocker (SUI) | 9 | Dupont (DEN) |
Park (KOR) | 10 | Campbell (CAN) |
Gösgens (NED) | 11 | Thevenot (CAN) |
Mooibroek (CAN) | 12 | Ueno (JPN) |
Howard (CAN) | 13 | Tabata (JPN) |
Yanagisawa (JPN) | 14 | MacMillan (CAN) |
Purcell (CAN) | 15 | Black (CAN) |
Smith (CAN) | 16 | B. Peterson (CAN) |