Silvana Tirinzoni

Silvana Tirinzoni
Curler
Born	(1979-06-25) June 25, 1979 (age 42) Dielsdorf
Team
Curling club	, Aarau, SUI
Skip	Silvana Tirinzoni
Fourth	Alina Pätz
Second	Esther Neuenschwander
Lead	Melanie Barbezat
Alternate	Carole Howald
Mixed doubles partner	Benoît Schwarz
Career
Member Association	Switzerland
World Championship appearances	5 (2006, 2007, 2013, 2019, 2021)
European Championship appearances	5 (2007, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021)
Olympic appearances	1 (2018)
Grand Slam victories	2 (2015 Tour Challenge, 2019 Champions Cup)
Medal record Women's Curling Representing   Switzerland World Curling Championships 2019 Silkeborg 2021 Calgary European Championships 2018 Tallinn 2019 Helsingborg World Junior Curling Championships 1999 Östersund European Mixed Curling Championship 2014 Copenhagen

Silvana Petra Tirinzoni (born June 25, 1979) is a Swiss curler from Zurich. She is currently the reigning women's world champion skip having won the last two championships, in 2019 and 2021.^[1][2] Tirinzoni also represented Switzerland at the 2018 Winter Olympics, after winning the 2017 Swiss Olympic Curling Trials.^[3]

Career[]

In 1997, Tirinzoni was the Swiss alternate for at the World Junior Curling Championships. The team finished seventh. The following year, Tirinzoni was the Swiss skip, at the World Juniors, and she and her team of Michèle Knobel, and finished sixth. In 1999, the same team returned to the Juniors, and won the whole tournament for Switzerland. After finishing the round robin in second place with a 7–2 record, Tirinzoni led Switzerland to a semi-final win over Sweden's and a final win against Japan (skipped by Akiko Katoh) to win the gold medal.

In 2005 Tirinzoni finished fourth at the Swiss Olympic trials.^[4] The following year she qualified for the 2006 World Women's Curling Championship, her first. Her Swiss team finished in tenth place with a 3–8 record.

Tirinzoni returned to the 2007 World Women's Curling Championship^[5] with nearly the same team as in 2006, adding veteran Mirjam Ott to the lineup. Ott moved into the third position when the team began with three losses, and they nearly came back to qualify for the playoff round. Switzerland fell just short, finishing fifth with a 6–5 record. Later that year Ott returned the favour by making Tirinzoni her alternate at the 2007 European Curling Championships. Tirinzoni would not see any action however, and the team finished fourth.

In 2011, Tirinzoni won her first World Curling Tour event, the Red Deer Curling Classic.^[6] She would not play in an international championship until 2013, when she skipped Switzerland at the 2013 World Women's Curling Championship.^[7] After finishing the round robin with a 6–5 record, she found herself in a three-way tie for fourth. After beating Russia's Anna Sidorova in the first tie breaker, she lost to the United States' Erika Brown in the second, settling for fifth place. Since then, Tirinzoni has won several World Curling Tour events, including the 2013 International Bernese Ladies Cup, the 2013 Stockholm Ladies Cup, the 2013 Women's Masters Basel and the 2014 Pomeroy Inn & Suites Prairie Showdown.

Tirinzoni and her rink began the 2014–15 season by winning their first event, the 2014 Stu Sells Oakville Tankard. She then went off to skip the Swiss team (throwing third rocks) at the 2014 European Mixed Curling Championship. She would lead her rink of Martin Rios, Romano Meier and Jenny Perret to a bronze medal.

While Tirinzoni did not return to an international competition for a while (due to strong competition in her home country from teams like Alina Pätz and Binia Feltscher), she and her rink have been strong on the World Curling Tour since then. The 2015–16 season included three tournament wins, including the first slam of the year, the 2015 GSOC Tour Challenge, where she beat the World #1 Rachel Homan rink in the final.^[8] The team would also win the International Bernese Ladies Cup and the Glynhill Ladies International later that year, while she led her team to four other tournament finals.

Tirinzoni continued her WCT success the following season, winning their first event, the 2016 Stu Sells Oakville Tankard, but did not win any further tournaments. She began the 2017–18 season by defending her Oakville Tankard title, which would be the third time she would win that tournament.

In one of the strongest countries, with three different World Champions including a two time World Champion and two time Olympic silver medalist, Tirinzoni won the right to be the Switzerland representative at the 2018 Winter Olympics. Her team finished undefeated throughout the 2017 Swiss Olympic Curling Trials. At the games, the team just missed out on a playoff spot, finishing with a 4–5 record.

Heading into the 2018–19 curling season, Tirinzoni joined forces with Alina Pätz, who threw fourth rocks with Tirinzoni skipping at the third position, with Esther Neuenschwander at second and Melanie Barbezat throwing lead rocks. The team reached the final in the first Grand Slam of the season, the Elite 10.^[9] They represented Switzerland at the 2018 European Curling Championships claiming the silver medal, going on an unbeaten 9–0 run to finish top of the Round Robin, before defeating Germany 6–4 in the semi-final, and falling 5–4 to Sweden's Anna Hasselborg in the final. Having won the 2019 Swiss National Championships, the team represented Switzerland at the 2019 World Women's Curling Championship in Silkeborg, Denmark. The team got off to a shaky start posting a 2–3 record in their first five games before winning six in a row to secure their playoff spot, and, after a final round dead rubber loss, a round robin record of 8–4 and 4th place in the standings. Tight victories over China in the qualification game, and South Korea in the semifinal set up a repeat of the European Championship final against Hasselborg and Sweden. They were able to turn the tables on Sweden, with Pätz making a draw to the four-foot in the extra end for an 8–7 win which meant they were crowned the 2019 world champions. The team capped off their year with their first Grand Slam title together at the Champions Cup, and reaching the final of the inaugural Curling World Cup.

At the start of the 2019–20 season, Team Tirinzoni were runners-up at the 2019 Cameron's Brewing Oakville Fall Classic.^[10] They also qualified for the playoffs at their next three events, the 2019 Stu Sells Oakville Tankard, the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic and the 2019 WCT Uiseong International Curling Cup. The next week, they won the Women's Masters Basel. They represented Switzerland at the 2019 European Curling Championships where they finished the round robin in first place with an 8–1 record. However, they would not make the final, as they lost to Scotland's Eve Muirhead in the semifinal. They rebounded in the bronze medal game, defeating Alina Kovaleva of Russia. The team was not able to defend their Swiss championship, losing the final of the 2020 Swiss Women's Curling Championship to the young Elena Stern rink.^[11] The Swiss championship would be the team's last event of the season, as both the Players' Championship and the Champions Cup Grand Slam events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[12]

Tirinzoni began the 2020–21 season by making the final of the 2020 Schweizer Cup where they once again lost to the Stern rink.^[13] Three weeks later, her team was invited to play in the Adelboden International men's World Curling Tour event, as a last minute addition.^[14] After dropping their first game to Yannick Schwaller, they went on a four-game winning streak against the men's field before losing to Olympic bronze medallist Peter de Cruz in the semifinal.^[15] In January 2021, Tirinzoni compted at the 2021 Swiss Mixed Doubles Curling Championship with partner Benoît Schwarz. The pair finished the round robin with a 4–3 record before losing to teammate Alina Pätz and Sven Michel in the semifinal.^[16] Two weeks later, Tirinzoni won her fifth national championship at the 2021 Swiss Women's Curling Championship. This put her in a playoff against 2020 Champions Team Stern for the right to represent Switzerland at the 2021 World Women's Curling Championship, as the 2020 Worlds were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[17] Tirinzoni beat Stern in the playoff, and represented Switzerland at the World Championship, which was played in a bio-secure bubble in Calgary, Canada due to the pandemic. There, she led her rink to a 12–1 round robin record, including scoring a rare eight-ender against Denmark,^[18] the first time an eight-ender has ever been scored at a World Championship. In the playoffs, Tirinzoni defeated the United States in the semifinal, and then Alina Kovaleva representing RCF (Russia) in the final to win the gold medal,^[19] successfully defending her 2019 championship, becoming the first Swiss skip to win back to back titles.^[20] While also in the Calgary bubble, Team Tirinzoni played in two Grand Slam events, making the final at the 2021 Champions Cup and the semifinals at the 2021 Players' Championship.^[21]

Personal life[]

Tirinzoni studied business administration at the University of Zurich and completed further training as a financial analyst and investment advisor. She worked for seven years as a project manager at a bank, and in 2019 she focused entirely on sports.^[22]

Grand Slam record[]

Former events[]

Teams[]

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Silvana Tirinzoni at World Curling Federation
• Silvana Tirinzoni at Olympics.com
• Silvana Tirinzoni at Olympedia
• Team Tirinzoni's Home Page