Niklas Edin
Silvana Tirinzoni
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Niklas Edin leads 4 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Niklas Edin at #1 and Silvana Tirinzoni at #9.
The case for Niklas Edin
The most decorated curler in history by any measure. Edin skipped Sweden to eight world titles between 2013 and 2026, including four in a row across 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, and closed his career by beating Canada 9-6 in the 2026 final in Ogden to break his own record. He is also the only skip to win three Olympic medals, taking bronze at Sochi 2014, silver at PyeongChang 2018 and finally gold in Beijing 2022, plus eight European Championship titles. Six of his eight world finals were won against Canadian rinks, which is the statistic that best captures what he did to the sport's balance of power: he took a country with a fraction of Canada's playing base and made it the default favourite for a decade. He retired in May 2026, weeks after the eighth title, with a combined 38 championship medals on World Curling's recognised list.
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.