What Happened to Japan’s Men’s Curling Team

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the international attention being afforded to Japan’s Women’s Olympic Curling Team, Team Aomori.

But what happened with to the Japanese men’s team?

Qualifying for the Vancouver Olympics was a very straightforward process and easy to understand.

To put it simply, teams had their scores from the 2007, 2008, and 2009 world championships added together. The total scores were ranked, and the top 9 teams qualified to compete in the 2010 Olympics. Because powerhouse Canada is the host nation, and highest scoring team, and gets an automatic bid to compete as the host, the top 10 scoring teams were given bids.

The team order and total points is as follows:

1. Canada – 40 points
2. Great Britain (based on Scotland’s qualifying points) – 29.5
3. Germany – 24
4. USA – 24
5. Norway – 23.5
6. Switzerland – 20
7. France – 19.5
8. Denmark – 13.5
9. China – 13
10. Sweden – 11
11. Australia – 10.5
12. Finland – 7.5
13. Czech Republic – 3
14. Japan – 3
15. South Korea – 1

All of the teams from China and below missed one or more championship. Japan scored its 3 points in the 2009 World Championships so if they start to compete every year I’m sure we’ll see them at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

For the record, the Japanese women’s team only competed at the World Championships in 2007 and 2008, but still managed to score enough points to slip into the Olympics in the final qualifying spot.