Ernie Richardson
Silvana Tirinzoni
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Silvana Tirinzoni leads 2 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Ernie Richardson at #8 and Silvana Tirinzoni at #9.
The case for Ernie Richardson
The first international dynasty and the team that set the technical template for everyone who followed. Richardson skipped a rink of his brother Garnet and cousins Arnold and Wes from Regina to four Briers and four Scotch Cup world championships in 1959, 1960, 1962 and 1963, a period in which the international championship was effectively a Canadian export. Their 1959 Brier win made them the youngest team to take the title at that time. What made them historically important was method rather than results: the sliding delivery, the willingness to play takeouts as a matter of course rather than as a last resort, and a level of practised consistency that European teams did not yet have. Richardson wrote several instruction books that carried that method abroad, and was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1978.
The case for Silvana Tirinzoni
Skip of the only women's team to win four consecutive world championships, taking gold in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 with Alina Patz throwing last stones, then adding silvers in 2024 and 2025 when Rachel Homan's Canada finally stopped them. The arrangement itself was unusual and much discussed: Tirinzoni called the game and held the broom while Patz delivered the fourth pair, a split of the skip's role that several elite teams have since copied. She also won European titles in 2023 and 2024 and a long run of Swiss national championships, and finally took an Olympic medal at Milano Cortina 2026, silver after a 6-5 loss to Sweden in the final. She announced her retirement in the summer of 2026, ending the most successful sustained run any women's team has assembled.