Sandra Schmirler
Anna Hasselborg
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Anna Hasselborg leads 3 of 3 categories. Our all-time ranking places Sandra Schmirler at #3 and Anna Hasselborg at #12.
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The case for Sandra Schmirler
The most influential women's skip the sport has produced, and the reason curling had a face when it entered the Olympic programme. Schmirler's Regina rink of Jan Betker, Joan McCusker and Marcia Gudereit won the Canadian championship and then the world title in 1993, 1994 and 1997, a treble no other women's team had managed, and in 1998 she skipped Canada to the first Olympic women's gold at Nagano, finishing 8-1 and beating Denmark in the final. Her shot-making under pressure, particularly a series of last-stone doubles in Canadian playoffs, is still used as coaching footage. She died of cancer in March 2000, aged 36, less than two years after the Olympic title. The foundation established in her name has since raised millions for neonatal intensive care units across Canada, and the Sandra Schmirler Foundation broadcast remains a fixture of the Canadian curling calendar.
The case for Anna Hasselborg
The second woman after Anette Norberg to win two Olympic gold medals as a skip, taking PyeongChang 2018 and then Milano Cortina 2026 with a 6-5 win over Switzerland, and adding bronze in Beijing 2022 for three Olympic medals in total. That Olympic record is the strongest in the current women's game, and it sits oddly alongside a world championship record of two silvers and no gold, which is the main argument used against her. She has three European titles, six Swedish championships and eight Grand Slam wins, and in 2022 her team became the first women's rink to complete a career Grand Slam by winning all four majors. Her calm, low-risk endgame management is the most studied aspect of her play, particularly her willingness to take a single when the alternative carries steal risk.