World Curling President Beau Welling is determined to shed the sport’s reputation as an Olympics-only attraction and usher in an era in which fans stay engaged year-round.
Born in Scotland and hugely popular in Canada, curling first appeared at the Olympic Games in 1924 in Chamonix. It then disappeared from the official program for more than seven decades before returning at the 1998 Nagano Games, a moment that propelled the sport onto the global stage.
Since Nagano, the sport’s governing body has expanded dramatically, growing to 77 member associations from 28.
Yet despite its spread beyond traditional winter-sports heartlands, curling continues to experience sharp spikes and lulls in attention closely tied to the Olympic cycle.
“There’s a lot of excitement and viewership around the globe every four years,” Welling told Reuters. “One of the things we’re working hard on is finding ways to make curling more accessible to a broader audience between the Olympics.”
“We have our own rapidly growing OTT platform, the Curling Channel. A fundamentally important strategic goal for us is to get more eyeballs on curling, and we’re working really hard to do that,” he said.
“We’re very proud of our sport. It’s a value-based sport with integrity and honesty. You call your own fouls, so sportsmanship is something that’s very much lauded. In our mission to grow the sport, we want to grow our culture as well.”
In October, World Curling announced an overhaul of its competition structure, with the annual world championships expanding to 18 teams from 13 beginning with the 2026-27 season.
The revamped structure will introduce a B division comprising 16 women’s and 16 men’s teams, as well as regional C division championships split between the European and Pan-Continental regions.
There will also be a system of promotion and relegation between the divisions.
Welling said the changes were designed to make the sport more accessible.
“We see this as opening up curling to everyone, but also to newer, nontraditional countries,” he said.
“There’s now a clear pathway to Olympic qualification points. The old system wasn’t a closed shop, but it was more difficult to break through. That pathway is going to be much clearer.
“On the development side, we want curling to grow, in terms of curlers, fans and the development of newer member associations.”
From the links to the rinks
Welling is a golf course designer by trade, and his company was involved in the design of the virtual green used in TGL, the tech-infused indoor golf league formed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy.
The South Carolina native first became interested in curling when it was held as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.
That led him to travel as a fan to the 2006 U.S. national championships in Bemidji, Minnesota, where he was immediately embraced by the curling community.
A few months later, he was asked to join the U.S. Curling board, setting him on a journey that culminated in his appointment as president of World Curling in September 2022.
“I’m from the state of South Carolina, where there’s no ice really, we just put ice in our drinks,” Welling said. “I was personally fascinated watching the sport on television.
“The more I watched, the more fascinated I became. I come from the world of golf. I design golf courses.
“It turns out that curling and golf are both ancient Scottish sports. There’s something about that which was part of the appeal.”
