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We’re past the midway mark of the season and two teams stand tall above the rest of the field in the Grand Slam of Curling.

Scotland’s Team Bruce Mouat has won all three men’s titles in the series to begin the 2024-25 campaign while Canada’s Team Rachel Homan has reached all three women’s finals with back-to-back title wins in the last two.

For Homan, it’s a continuation of the previous season where her Ottawa-based team captured Canadian and world championships, two Grand Slams and finished with an unbelievable 67-7 record.

Here’s a capsule look at each Grand Slam of Curling event so far this season and a quick look at what’s ahead in 2025.

HEARINGLIFE TOUR CHALLENGE (OCT. 1-6, 2024; CHARLOTTETOWN)

Gotta catch ’em all! Mouat kicked off the Grand Slam of Curling season by checking the last title he was missing from the list. Coincidentally, Mouat had to defeat the only other men’s skip who had accomplished that feat.

Mouat defeated Canada’s Team Brad Gushue with a decisive 10-3 victory to capture the HearingLife Tour Challenge Tier 1 men’s title and become just the second men’s skip (and third overall) who had won all five different events in the series. It was also the seventh career Grand Slam of Curling championship for Mouat, whose team posted a perfect 6-0 record in the tournament.

“Thinking back to my early days in this sport, dreaming about trying to win one of these was something that seemed impossible,” Mouat said. “To finally get seven and to win every single one of them is a surreal moment. It’s something very special to all of us, all four of us.”

Canada’s Team Kerri Einarson was already facing uncertainty as lead Briane Harris remains provisionally suspended after testing positive for a banned substance (Harris has yet to play this season as she continues to await a decision on her appeal). Second Shannon Birchard has also been out of the lineup as she recovers from a knee injury. While Karlee Burgess has joined the team for the remainder of the season, Einarson relied upon super spares to fill in for Birchard during the first half with Dawn McEwen coming on board for the HearingLife Tour Challenge.

After losing to Italy’s Team Stefania Constantini to start, Einarson rolled off six consecutive victories en route to the title, including a 5-4 win over Homan.

That completed a full-circle moment for Einarson, who claimed the inaugural Tour Challenge Tier 2 title back in 2015.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Einarson said. “I know when I was coming up into the Slams and having to win that Tier 2 just to get into them. Now here we are winning Tier 1. Our hard work has really paid off.”

Homan also fell to Constantini during the triple knockout round, but those losses have been her only two defeats during the season with an impressive 40-2 record and rattling off a 23-game winning streak.

Speaking of the Tier 2, Saskatoon’s Team Rylan Kleiter and Halifax’s Team Christina Black captured those titles to join the elite ranks in future Grand Slam of Curling events. Kleiter defeated Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell 6-5 in an extra end during the men’s final and Black beat Japan’s Team Sayaka Yoshimura 7-3 in the women’s final.

Black competed in the KIOTI National and hung with the world’s best by reaching the quarterfinals while Kleiter will compete in the WFG Masters.

CO-OP CANADIAN OPEN (NOV. 5-10, 2024; NISKU, ALTA.)

Mouat and Homan entered the Co-op Canadian Open as the reigning champions and both succesfully defended their titles.

Team Mouat continued its red-hot run, this time going 7-0, and defeated Gushue again in the final by a score of 6-2. Both Mouat and third Grant Hardie shot 98 per cent, second Bobby Lammie was a perfect 100 per cent and lead Hammy McMillan Jr. fired a “low” 96 per cent during the game.

“It feels really good,” Mouat said. “It was an incredible game, we hardly missed a shot and all the guys throughout the team were playing amazing. I’m really proud of us.” 

Team Gushue had a different look though having parted ways with second E.J. Harnden right after the HearingLife Tour Challenge amid a shocking shuffle among the top Canadian men’s teams. Gushue recruited former skip Brendan Bottcher to join his team at second. Skips Kevin Koe, Reid Carruthers and Matt Dunstone also made lineup changes during the fall with Harnden joining Team Dunstone.

Homan went 7-0 on the women’s side and close to home for the resident of Beaumont, Alta.

“It’s so cool,” Homan said. “We brought this event here, we were hoping it’d be a success and it was sold out all weekend. It’s just awesome that we could be in the final and take it home for Beaumont.”

Team Homan defeated Switzerland’s Team Silvana Tirinzoni 7-5 in a repeat of last season’s world championship final. Trailing 3-2, Homan pulled off a shot-of-the-year candidate to score three points in the fourth end to jump back into the lead for good.

“I wasn’t quite sure if it was there,” Homan said. “Trying to go for two, you always hope for the best and just feathered that hole.”

KIOTI NATIONAL (NOV. 26 – DEC. 1, 2024; ST. JOHN’S, N.L.)

The Grand Slam of Curling heaved away to old St. John’s for the KIOTI National with a packed house on hand all week at the Mary Brown’s Centre. St. John’s own Team Gushue was clearly the crowd favourite although the cheers were loud for all the teams.

Along with some jeers.

Team Brad Jacobs faced Gushue during the quarterfinals in an intense clash between two of the top Canadian clubs. Jacobs led by one point during the seventh and opted to give up a steal to retain the hammer for the final end. That decision was met with a chorus of boos from the crowd and Jacobs embraced the villain role by raising his arms for more and twirling his finger.

The plan worked out for Jacobs, who scored a single in the eighth to win 6-5 and advance.

“First of all, we all loved it,” Jacobs said. “There were a lot of apologies from a lot of people. A lot of people actually felt like it was uncalled for but you know what? Curling needs more of that.

“In any other sport out there, there’s a team that people want to win and there’s the villain and I know we’re both Brads, the Battle of the Brads for how many years now? Well over a decade. We embrace that. That’s good theatre, that’s good TV, that’s good for the sport and that makes it worth it for all of those bums in those seats.

“I also thought to myself, if any individual can reach a point in their life where they’re in an arena and they’re booed by 6,000-plus people, they’re probably doing something right in their life. We embraced it. I know that we rained on the parade a little bit but they get a lot of rain out here, so they’re used to it, right?”

Jacobs topped Scotland’s Team Ross Whyte 6-3 in the semifinals to set up a championship tilt against Mouat.

Team Mouat sustained its first loss in the Grand Slam season during round-robin play with a 6-3 defeat against Team John Shuster of the United States. The squad got back on track winning four straight heading into the final.

Mouat took control late, scoring deuces in the sixth and eighth ends to defeat Jacobs 5-3. That made it three straight Grand Slam of Curling men’s championships for Mouat and nine overall as he took sole possession of fourth place on the all-time men’s title wins list.

“It’s kind of incredible,” said Mouat, who won his first Grand Slam seven years previously at the National. “I saw the footage of us back in 2017 when we won it, so there are a few more wrinkles on the face and a few more grey hairs as well. It’s incredible to think back to that long ago and realize the journey was just beginning for us then.

“The legends that we’re now being recognized with is just incredible to all of us because we grew up knowing these people or wanting to get close to where they potentially were and to actually realize that we’re doing it is incredible.”

The Team Homan train kept rolling through the women’s division, posting another perfect 7-0 record. Homan scored two points in the eighth end to lift her squad over Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg 6-5 in the final.

Don’t let the unblemished record fool you as this was no cake walk. Homan also needed late rallies to beat Yoshimura in the quarterfinals and South Korea’s Team Eun-jung Kim in the semifinals.

“Unbelievable,” Homan said. “It was definitely a different way to win it in the end. We had two battles and come-from-behind wins in the quarters and semis. We’re just trying to keep playing better in the playoffs and trying to manage those misses a little bit more.”

Homan has now won a record 17 Grand Slam of Curling women’s titles and is one away from tying legendary men’s skip Kevin Martin for the most among all players.

WFG MASTERS (JAN. 14-19; GUELPH, ONT.)

The Grand Slam of Curling returns to action next week with the WFG Masters and the hype has been building with full-event and weekend passes already sold out.

It’s the second time the Sleeman Centre will host a Grand Slam of Curling event following the 2010 National. That was back when the event was a men’s invitational with Gushue capturing his first career title in the series. 

Now featuring men’s and women’s divisions and some interesting storylines ahead, it’s sure to be a must-watch event. Will Mouat make it four in a row? Can Homan tie Martin? Or will a combo-breaker disrupt the streaks?

There’s also a new rule that will be tested during the event where teams will lose the hammer if they blank two consecutive ends. Oh, did we mention there was a draft to determine the pools where teams selected their opponents? Quite the intrigue.

Last season’s WFG Masters was held in Saskatoon with Italy’s Team Joël Retornaz successfully defending the men’s title, and winning a third straight Grand Slam, after defeating first-time finalist Team Ross Whyte of Scotland 3-2. No surprise, Homan took the women’s title, her fourth at the Masters, doubling up on Tirinzoni 8-4.

PLAYERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP (APRIL 8-13; TORONTO)

After a bit of a break, the Grand Slam of Curling season resumes with the Players’ Championship, returning to Toronto’s Mattamy Athletic Centre for the 10th time since 2013.

Only the top 12 men’s teams and top 12 women’s teams in the world based on the year-to-date ranking receive invitations to the prestigious final major tournament of the season.

Gushue captured his 15th Grand Slam of Curling men’s title at the event last season with his team’s thrilling victory in the men’s final over Retornaz. Gushue’s draw shot with the last rock of the game to win 7-6 even earned a tip of the cap from his opponent. Tirinzoni will return as the defending women’s champion after topping Sweden’s Team Isabella Wrana 6-5.