On May 15-22, 2022, the top junior curling countries from across the globe have gathered in Jönköping, Sweden, to compete in the World Junior Curling Championships 2022.

For the U.S. Junior Women’s team, Delaney Strouse, Anne O’Hara, Sydney Mullaney, Susan Dudt, and Kaitlin Murphy, the opportunity to perform on the world stage came highly anticipated after competition postponements and cancellations due to the pandemic.

“After a year of Covid it’s been exhausting to continuously practice without getting to show off what you’ve been working for,” said skip Delaney Strouse. “Being able to finally show it off on the big stage is super special to us.”

Despite the delays in competition, Team USA’s work ethic hasn’t wavered.

“We have done a lot to prepare as a team, including practicing multiple times a week, spending weekends together, and getting into the gym as much as possible,” said Strouse. “We’ve also worked on our mental skills through sports psychology.”

Team USA opened their tournament on Sunday against Latvia and unfortunately for the American women, a slow start resulted in a loss.

“That first game was definitely a little rough for us,” added Strouse. “We just had a bit of a slow start and didn’t really reach our peak performance.”

Drawing on their physical and mental toughness, as well as the team dynamics they’ve worked tirelessly to build on over the last few seasons, Team USA rebounded in impressive fashion.

“Playing as the four of us and being who we are on the ice kind of took a game to remember,” said second Syndey Mullaney. “Now, we’re just totally in the groove of things, really feeling like ourselves, and getting the most out of each and every one of us.”

Four days and six games later, the Strouse-skipped rink has yet to return to the loss column, sliding to the top of the women’s standings with victories over Scotland, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, Korea, and Canada.

With a 6-1 record, the U.S. women have clinched a berth to the playoffs and aim to continue building momentum through the final two games of round robin play.

The top four teams will advance to the playoff portion of the tournament to play in semi-final matchups. The winner of each semi-final will play for gold and the losers will compete for bronze.

Team USA will face Denmark in their next game on Friday at 2:00am CDT, and then Norway on Friday at 12:00pm CDT.

WATCH:

World Curling TV will be broadcasting 16 games from the World Junior Curling Championships 2022 in Jönköping, Sweden. The games highlighted in the below schedule will be available for live viewing exclusively on The Curling Channel in partnership with Recast. Sign up for Recast using https://wcf.co/CurlingChannel to receive 100 free credits and begin watching live coverage immediately.

USA Curling is sponsored by Columbia Sportswear, Toyota, Twin Cities Orthopedics, Training HAUS, Brakebush, ISS (Ice, Sports & Solar), and Sitrin, and is partnered with IHG, Rock Solid Productions Inc., Laurie Artiss Ltd. – The Pin People.