Elena Stern (born 8 November 1994) is a retired

Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...

curler from

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

Career

Stern first represented Switzerland on the international stage at the

2012 Winter Youth Olympics The 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games (), officially known as the I Winter Youth Olympic Games (YOG), were an international multi-sport event for youths that took place in Innsbruck, Austria, on 13–22 January 2012. They were the inaugural Wint ...

where her team of Michael Brunner,

Romano Meier Romano Keller-Meier (born 14 April 1995 in Baden, Switzerland, Baden) is a Switzerland, Swiss curling, curler from Ehrendingen. He currently plays Second (curling), second on Team Michael Brunner. Career Juniors In 2012, Meier represented Switz ...

and Lisa Gisler won the gold medal. In 2014, she played in her first World Junior Curling Championship as the alternate for Corina Mani. They lost the tiebreaker 7–6 to Sweden's

Isabella Wranå Isabella Marianne Peggy Wranå (born 22 June 1997) is a Swedish curler. She is a former skip of the Swedish junior women's team, with whom she won a World Junior championship in 2017. In 2018, she was inducted into the Swedish Curling Hall of F ...

. She returned the following season at the

2015 World Junior Curling Championships The 2015 World Junior Curling Championships was held from February 28 to March 8 at the Tondiraba Ice Rink in Tallinn, Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the G ...

, this time as lead for Lisa Gisler. Her Swiss team won the bronze medal. In 2015 she also played in her first

European Curling Championship The European Curling Championships are annual curling tournaments held in Europe between various European nations. The European Curling Championships are usually held in early to mid December. The tournament also acts as a qualifier for the World ...

as alternate for

Alina Pätz Alina Pätz (born 8 March 1990 in Urdorf, Switzerland) is a Swiss Curling, curler. She currently throws fourth stones on Team Silvana Tirinzoni, which represented Switzerland at the Curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics, 2022 Winter Olympics. She ...

. She did not play in any games. Stern returned for her third consecutive year to the World Juniors at the

2016 World Junior Curling Championships The 2016 World Junior Curling Championships were held from March 5 to 13 at the Tårnby Curling Club in Copenhagen, Denmark. Men Teams Round-robin standings ''Final Round Robin Standings'' is not able to be relegated due to their hosting o ...

. She skipped her team to a 4–5 record, missing the playoffs. Stern made back to back appearances at the

World Mixed Curling Championship The World Mixed Curling Championship is the world championship for mixed curling. It is held annually in the autumn, and replaced the European Mixed Curling Championship. Results The results are listed as follows: All-time medal table ''As of ...

in 2016 and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

. In 2016, they lost in the quarterfinals and in 2017 they missed the playoffs. She also skipped the Swiss team to a fourth-place finish at the

2017 Winter Universiade Winter Universiade 2017, the XXVIII Winter Universiade, was a multi-sport winter event which took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan from 29 January to 8 February 2017. On 29 November 2011, International University Sports Federation, FISU announced that ...

. The 2018–19 season was a breakout year for Stern and her team of fourth Briar Hürlimann, second Lisa Gisler and lead

Céline Koller Céline Koller (born 7 February 1996) is a Switzerland, Swiss curling, curler from Adelboden. Career Koller first represented Switzerland on the international stage at the 2015 World Mixed Curling Championship, as lead for Yannick Schwaller. Aft ...

. They played in four

Grand Slam of Curling The Grand Slam of Curling (formerly branded as the Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling for sponsorship reasons) is a series of curling bonspiels that were formerly part of the annual World Curling Tour. Grand Slam events offer a purse of at least Ca ...

, and won the

2018 Tour Challenge The 2018 Tour Challenge was held from November 6 to 11 at the Tournament Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario. This was the third Grand Slam of the 2018–19 curling season. In the men's Tier 1 competition, Brad Jacobs defeated Brendan Bottcher in ...

Tier 2 and the 2018 Women's Masters Basel

World Curling Tour The World Curling Tour (WCT) is a group of curling bonspiels featuring the best male, female, and Doubles curling, mixed doubles curlers in the world. History The World Curling Tour was founded by former World Champion Ed Lukowich, with later ass ...

events. Team Stern followed their great season with an even better one for the 2019–20 season. They had a quarterfinal finish at the 2019 Cameron's Brewing Oakville Fall Classic. They missed the playoffs at their next three events, the 2019 Stu Sells Oakville Tankard, the 2019 AMJ Campbell Shorty Jenkins Classic and the inaugural WCT Uiseong International Curling Cup. Next, Team Stern played in the

2019 Canad Inns Women's Classic The 2019 Canad Inns Women's Classic was held from October 17 to 20 at the Portage Curling Club in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba as part of the World Curling Tour. The event was held in a triple-knockout format with a purse of $60,000. In the fi ...

and qualified for the playoffs threw the C side. They successfully defeated

Eve Muirhead Eve Muirhead (born 22 April 1990) is a Scottish former curler from Perth and the skip of the British Olympic Curling team. Muirhead and the GB team became Olympic champions at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the bron ...

in the quarterfinals,

Silvana Tirinzoni Silvana Petra Tirinzoni (born 25 June 1979) is a Swiss curler from Zurich. She is a four-time women's world champion skip (, , , ) and five-time Grand Slam champion. She is a former world junior champion and reigning European champion. Tirinzo ...

in the semifinals and

Rachel Homan Rachel Catherine Homan (born April 5, 1989) is a Canadian international curling, curler and the reigning women's world champion. Homan is a former 2010 Canadian Junior Curling Championships, Canadian junior champion, a five-time Scotties Tourna ...

in the final to win the event. They also won the

International Bernese Ladies Cup The International Bernese Ladies Cup (Swiss German: ''Internationaler Berner Damen Cup'') is an annual bonspiel which was started in 1968 and became an event on the women's World Curling Tour in 2007. It is held every January at the Curlingbahn A ...

and the

Schweizer Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

. For the first time ever, they qualified for the playoffs at a Grand Slam event where they lost to

Tracy Fleury Tracy Fleury (born Tracy Horgan; June 13, 1986) is a Canadian curler from Sudbury, Ontario. She joined the Rachel Homan rink as skip for the 2022–23 season, and now plays third on the team. With Homan, she won the 2024 Scotties Tournament of ...

in the quarterfinals at the Masters. They also qualified for the playoffs as the number one seed at the

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

but they also lost in the quarterfinals, this time to

Satsuki Fujisawa is a Japanese curler from Kitami, Hokkaido. As a skip, she has won the Japanese national championship six times. Fujisawa skipped the bronze medal-winning Japanese team at the 2018 Winter Olympic Games and the silver medal-winning team at the ...

. Team Stern surprised many when they upset the defending world champion rink

in the 2020 Swiss Women's Curling Championship three times and defeated them in the final 6–4. The team was set to represent Switzerland at the

2020 World Women's Curling Championship The 2020 World Women's Curling Championship (branded as the 2020 World Women's Curling Championship presented by Nature's Bounty for sponsorship reasons) was scheduled to be held from March 14 to 22 at the CN Centre in Prince George, Canada. On ...

before the event got cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The Swiss championship would be their last event of the season as both the

Players' Championship The Players' Championship, currently known as the AMJ Players' Championship for sponsorship reasons, is the final event of the Grand Slam of Curling tour, and is formerly the championship of the World Curling Tour season. From 2016 to 2019, i ...

and the Champions Cup Grand Slam events were also cancelled due to the pandemic. Stern and her team began the abbreviated 2020–21 season by winning the 2020 Schweizer Cup, defeating Team Tirinzoni in the final. The team next played in the 2020 Women's Masters Basel, losing in the semifinals to Raphaela Keiser. Two weeks later, they competed in the 2.0 Cup, a men's tour event as the sole women's team. They lost in the C Qualifier game to Sweden's

Fredrik Nyman Fredrik Emanuel Nyman (born 7 February 1995) is a Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden an ...

. At the 2021 Swiss Women's Curling Championship, the team could not defend their title, losing all five of their matches against the Tirinzoni rink. As they had won the Swiss Championship in 2020 but could not participate in the World Championship due to the cancellation, Team Stern played Team Tirinzoni in a best-of-five series to determine which team would represent Switzerland at the

2021 World Women's Curling Championship The 2021 World Women's Curling Championship (branded as 2021 LGT World Women's Curling Championship for sponsorship reasons) was held 30 April to 9 May at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta. The event was orig ...

. Tirinzoni defeated Stern three games to zero in the series, earning themselves the spot at the World Championship. Stern and her team ended their season at the 2021 Champions Cup and

2021 Players' Championship The 2021 Players' Championship, Princess Auto Players' Championship was held April 20–25, 2021 at the Markin MacPhail Centre at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary, Alberta. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, it was announced that both the Pl ...

Grand Slam events, which were played in a "curling bubble" in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

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, with no spectators, to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. The team finished winless in the Champions Cup and made the quarterfinals at the Players'. Stern retired from competitive curling in 2021, after not qualifying to represent Switzerland at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

Personal life

Stern works as a communications officer.

Grand Slam record

Teams

References

External links

*
Team Stern's Home Page
Swiss female curlers Living people 1994 births Curlers from Zurich Curlers at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics Sportspeople from Wetzikon Youth Olympic gold medalists for Switzerland Swiss LGBTQ sportspeople Lesbian sportswomen LGBTQ curlers Competitors at the 2017 Winter Universiade 21st-century Swiss sportswomen