After Stirling’s 3rd-place finish, Team Zardini Lacedelli is targeting the Europeans: “We aim to be the team that represents the national side”

Italian curling has undergone a genuine revolution, with players moving between the various lineups that began the post-Olympic season a few days ago.

On the women’s side, the two leading teams are those led by Giulia Zardini Lacedelli, now based again in Cortina, and Stefania Constantini (in Pinerolo), but the Euro Super Series in Stirling, an international-level tournament that last week saw the Ampezzo team finish an excellent 3^rd after losing only in the semifinal to Team Paetz on the Scottish ice, also featured the young players of the team captained by Rebecca Mariani.

Within Curling Club Dolomiti, alongside Team Zardini Lacedelli, there is also Team Zisa, which, together with their female colleagues, was presented in Cortina, as reported by the “Corriere delle Alpi”.

For Giulia Zardini Lacedelli, Marta Lo Deserto, Elena Antonia Mathis and Rachele Scalesse, ambitions are high, and the first objective of the 2026/27 season is to represent Italy at the next European Championships in Ostrava, scheduled to take place in Czechia from 27 October to 1 November. A challenge held in October between the three best Italian teams, both men’s and women’s, will decide who wears the Azzurri colors at the continental event. “Thank you for welcoming us back; returning here is an honor and a pleasure for us,” said skip Zardini Lacedelli. “We have major objectives, but we know we can achieve them.

It will be a long journey, but we have the ability to do well and we have already demonstrated that in the first tournament. We want to be ready for the challenge that will choose who represents the Italian national team.”

Team Zisa is on the same wavelength, with Alberto as skip, alongside Francesco De Zanna, Mattia Giovanella, Francesco Vigliani, Giacomo Colli and Edoardo Alfonsi. “We also had a good start. We have a month in Canada ahead of us, with four tournaments to get ready for the challenge. We still need to gel properly, but the ability is there; we feel the responsibility of representing Cortina and we want to become the new national team.” They will face Team Spiller, an excellent 3^rd in Stirling, and the team led by the evergreen Joel Retornaz, runners-up at the Baden Masters in the Swiss event.

At the start of the evening organized in Cortina, there was inevitably a review of events, with the Olympics and Paralympics deemed an organizational success. “We put in a great deal of effort,” said president Alessandro Zisa. “With pride and tremendous satisfaction, we put all our expertise at the service of the event. These are things that remain for the future and make us think we can organize international-level events without fear.”

Another legacy left by the Games is a set of 64 brand-new stones and two ice-resurfacing machines. The delicate issue of the new arena was also addressed, with mayor Lorenzi explaining the problem: “The initial project to build the Olympic arena was rejected, and we found ourselves in a truly difficult situation. However, I want to reassure everyone that we are addressing the issue and trying to move the facility to another location. We want to see this project, which has now been discussed for 40 years, finally completed.”

In addition to the prestige of reaching the semifinal in the first tournament of the season, Team Zardini Lacedelli received an invitation to take part in the first Grand Slam of the 2026/27 season; the qualification rules for Canada’s most prestigious circuit have changed. At the first event, 12 teams qualify based on the ranking, while four places go to the winners of certain satellite tournaments.

Since finalists Paetz and Schwaller had already secured their spots, the invitation to compete in the Co-op Invitational in Victoria (13–18 October) went to the Cortina team, as the semifinalist with the highest ranking.