PRESS RELEASE

After having successfully hosted the World Mixed Doubles Championship in 2009, the Olympic Ice Stadium in Cortina d’Ampezzo gets ready to host the world top 12 teams that in 2010 (April 3-11) will compete for the Capital One World Men’s Curling Championship.

Still four months to go and the atmosphere in the picturesque resort town in northern Italy gets “warmer and warmer”, while the outside temperatures up in the Dolomites drop below zero.

Canada, United States and the host country Italy are among the teams that will certainly take part in the 2010 World Men’s Championship in Cortina d’Ampezzo. Two more teams will come out of the Pacific Curling Championships 2009 currently underway in Karuizawa, Japan. The remaining seven spots will be assigned to the best European teams after the European Championships to be held in Aberdeen, Scotland, next December. After having defeated the “unbeatable” Canadians at the 2009 World Men’s Championship in Moncton, Canada, the Scots are now the “Lords of the stones”, the number one favourite team.

There is still uncertainty about the Italian team that will take part in 2010 World Men’s Championship in Italy, since the two candidates, the 2009 National Champion “Team Retornaz Trentino Curling” from Trento and the “C.C. Dolomiti BPT” from Cortina are both in great shape and they could both do well “at home” next April. The C.C. Dolomiti BPT will be representing Italy at the European Championships in Scotland next month.

The town of Cortina d’Ampezzo is considered the Italian “cradle” of curling. Old historical documents and photos, dated about a hundred years ago, show people throwing “bags” on the ice in what is viewed as the ancestor of the modern curling. Famous people such as the Italian actor Alberto Sordi and the beautiful French actress Brigitte Bardot used to come to Cortina and play curling in the past.

The organizing committee, presided by Massimo Antonelli, has been preparing the 2010 event for months, in order to create something perfect in every single detail, both from a technical and from an organisational point of view.

The 2010 Capital One World Men’s Curling Championship logo and the renewed website at www.wmcc2010.it have also been presented in the last days.