China fall to Switzerland at World Men's Curling Championship

At the 2025 World Men's Curling Championship in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, China suffered a 3-7 loss to Switzerland while missing out on the final and also losing the opportunity to qualify directly for the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. China will next face Canada in the bronze medal game and are hoping to create their best result at the Championships.

Seven countries will qualify for men's curling at Milano Cortina 2026 based on their combined performances at the 2024 and 2025 World Championships, joining host nation Italy. The Chinese team, consisting of Xu Xiaoming, Fei Xueqing, Wang Zhiyu, and Li Zhichao, beat Norway 8-7 in the previous qualification game. However the Swiss started strong en-route to taking 2-0 lead in the second end.  

Switzerland's fourth player played a draw to score two points and improve Switzerland's lead to 4-1, which later enlarged the gap to 6-2. China battled back but it was too late.

By the ninth end, Switzerland led by 7-2. China's skip Xu scored only one point with a hit, and China conceded defeat as Switzerland claimed the 7-3 victory. 

China will next face Canada in the bronze medal game and are hoping to create their best result at the Championships. Scotland will face Switzerland for the gold medal. Although China miss the direct qualification for the 2026 Winter Olympics, they still have a chance to compete for a spot in a qualification event in December. The United States, China, Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea, ranked 9th to 13th in Olympic points, are qualified for the event, where they will compete with three teams that advance from the qualifying stage for the last two Olympic spots.