2027 5U NATIONALS SLATED FOR LAS VEGAS, QUALIFYING BONSPIELS ALSO ANNOUNCED
Photo by: Ray Kwan
[EDEN PRAIRIE, MN, June 2, 2026] — The 2027 USA Curling Five-and-Under Nationals, a championship for adult curlers with five years or less of experience in the sport, will be at CurlVegas from May 4th through May 9th.
“Las Vegas hosted the Arena Nationals this past season, and their energy is infectious,” said USA Curling CEO Dean Gemmell. “The club leadership worked through a lot of challenges to bring curling to the desert, and we are excited to support their growth. Being in Las Vegas, they also have no shortage of members who are new to curling, and this event is all about giving those players a competitive opportunity.”
Five-and-Under players have proven to be passionate competitors and USA Curling is committed to facilitating an equitable event to represent this community of athletes. In pursuit of that goal, USA Curling will be implementing the following changes to Five-and-Under Eligibility requirements and the Fill Policy of the event. Discussions of these changes will be on the agenda at the upcoming Town Hall on June 15th.
5-and-Under Eligibility
The definition of a Five-and-Under curler, seemingly simple at first glance, has proven to be an enigmatic matter. USA Curling has frequently evaluated the eligibility definitions and their impact throughout the short lifetime of the event, striving for clear, fair guidance. Most recently, valid concerns have been raised by the Arena Curling community regarding the current July 1 - June 30 calendar and the impact it has on the 5U longevity for curlers who start their career at these committed clubs that don’t always follow the traditional curling season. The following update to eligibility is an effort to bridge that gap and ensure that arena curlers have equitable access to 5U competition when compared to their dedicated ice counterparts.
Current Eligibility Summary:
Curlers are eligible to play in Five and Under Nationals and associated competitions if they have 5 or fewer years of experience in curling. One year of experience is defined as 10 or more games between July 1 and June 30th of the following year.
Updated Eligibility Summary:
Beginning with the 2027 USA Curling Five-and-Under National Championship, the definition of a year of experience in curling will be updated to the following: 15 or more games between June 1 and May 31 of the following year.
Justification:
The current July 1 to June 30 season was selected because it aligns with other, unrelated USA Curling and World Curling calendar schedules. This selection of dates has a significant impact on clubs that operate year round, primarily Arena Clubs, especially during Olympic years. While they sometimes have year-round operations, arena clubs generally operate with fewer overall league opportunities compared to dedicated ice clubs while often seeing the most available ice team in the spring and summer months.
The experience advantage of preserving the first year of eligibility for these curlers would likely be easily overtaken by their dedicated ice cohorts by year 2 or 3 of play. Allowing the extra initial year of curling before losing a year of eligibility gives these curlers an opportunity to take advantage of limited ice availability early in their development while minimizing the negative impact on their competitive opportunities down the road.
Increasing the number of games from 10 to 15 more accurately reflects a theoretical "year" of curling. Most curling leagues are between 12 and 20 games, so 15 was selected as an approximate midpoint for a curler playing in typical league.
USA Curling will continue to observe and reevaluate Five-and-Under Eligibility to ensure the 5U field consistently reflects the intended pool of athletes.
Fill policy
There are berths in Nationals available through 23 Qualifying Bonspiels (QB), with one berth awarded to the host club. While each QB has one berth available, there has been a need to apply the Fill Policy to award berths because some teams win multiple QB and earn more than one berth. USA Curling intends to use the Fill Policy as another lever to influence the representation of women at the National Championship.
Current Fill Policy Summary:
The list of Runners Up of each QBs are ranked by the size of the bonspiel. The first Fill Policy berth is awarded to the Runner Up at the largest QB, the second to the Runner Up at the second largest QB, and so on.
Updated Fill Policy Summary:
Runners Up of QBs that are teams composed primarily of women will be made into a list (List A). This list will be sorted first by the number of women on the team (most to fewest, max 4) then by the size of the bonspiel for which they were the runners up (largest to smallest). A second list (List B) of all QB runners up will be sorted according to the current Fill Policy. The first berth awarded through this updated Fill Policy will be the top team on List A. The second berth will be awarded to the top team on List B. The third berth would return to the next available team on List A and so forth, alternating selections between the lists.
Justification:
While the overall number (and percentage) of women at Five-and-Under Nationals has increased since its debut as a USA Curling championship in 2022, participation of women's or primarily-women's teams has remained modest and women are dramatically underrepresented on the podium (one silver medal and two bronze medals since 2021). This adjustment does not aim to single-handedly accomplish perfect representation of women in competitive curling at the 5U level. However, the intent is to promote competitive experience among women's teams, particularly backend players. Women's teams finishing as first event runners up in any bonspiel would be eligible for List A, so this adjustment does not necessarily guarantee additional berths through the fill policy for either of the women's qualifying bonspiels.
The anticipated impact is two teams, but likely only one. USA Curling is committed to supporting the developmental nature of the 5U competition through this and other means. Promoting participation and experience at the beginner level of competition is consistent with that intent.
USA Curling is excited that some growth in women's competition at the 5U level has happened organically, however, under-represented parties rarely find timely equity without external, deliberate support from leadership. Mindful, structured intervention aims to reinforce current trends in growth. This updated Fill Policy will be reevaluated annually. The current goal is to return to the current (soon to be legacy) Fill Policy after the event has reached five years of equal or greater representation of women compared to the USA Curling Member population.
The full details of both of these updates will be published in the 2026-2027 Championship & Qualification Procedures later this summer.
Qualifying Bonspiels
This season, USA Curling received 27 applications for 23 available Qualifying Bonspiels (QBs). Final selection of the 23 QBs was influenced by a number of factors, including but not limited to:
Geographic distribution: Ours is a big country, and we aim to provide qualifier opportunities for players across the nation.
Regional association limitations: While we do select some large and established bonspiels that are run by a Recognized Regional Association, we do favor events that are open to players from across the country and do not limit entries to members of one regional association.
Participation of women: Reflecting the desire of the national organization to increase opportunities for women, we do favor events that are either exclusively for women or offer a traditional mixed format. We have seen an increase among women competing at the national championship on either women’s teams for mixed teams, but we recognize that work remains to be done.
Due to above-average applications in those regions, USA Curling was not able to include all applicants from the GNCC, the GLCA, and Wisconsin in the final list of Qualifying Bonspiels. We hope these bonspiels apply again next year and we are excited to have been able to select events this year that we were not able to include previously.
| No. | Bonspiel | Host Club | Start Date | Bonspiel Type | Regional Limitation |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tahoe Tessie | Lake Tahoe Epic Curling | September 25, 2026 | Womens | None |
| 2 | Arizona Superhero Bonspiel | Coyotes Curling Club | October 22, 2026 | Open | None |
| 3 | Cool Duck | Ardsley Curling Club | November 5, 2026 | Open | None |
| 4 | Mid-America Regional 5-U Bonspiel | Dallas Fort Worth Curling Club | November 6, 2026 | Open | Hybrid |
| 5 | Mad Anthony 5 & Under | Fort Wayne Curling Club | November 6, 2026 | Open | None |
| 6 | Frogtown Five | Frogtown Curling Club | November 20, 2026 | Open | None |
| 7 | 2026 Midwest Cup | Kettle Moraine Curling Club | December 4, 2026 | Open | None |
| 8 | Fightin' Hornet | Charlotte Curling Association | December 4, 2026 | Open | None |
| 9 | The Snow Belt U5 Showdown | Mayfield Curling Club | December 11, 2026 | Open | None |
| 10 | Jinlge Rocks 5U | Stevens Point Curling Club | December 11, 2026 | Open | None |
| 11 | Lakeside Curling 5 & Under Open Bonspiel | Duluth Curling Club | January 15, 2027 | Open | None |
| 12 | Appleton Frigid Apple | Appleton Curling Club | January 15, 2027 | Open | None |
| 13 | Frozen Five and Under | Madison Curling Club | January 22, 2027 | Open | None |
| 14 | Furthest North 5 & Under Bonspiel | Fairbanks Curling Club | January 28, 2027 | Open | None |
| 15 | Five U Fling Spiel | Heather Curling Club | February 5, 2027 | Open | None |
| 16 | 2027 MoPac 5&U Bonspiel | CurlVegas | February 5, 2027 | Open | Hybrid |
| 17 | Evergreen 5&U Bonspiel | Evergreen Curling Club | February 5, 2027 | Open | None |
| 18 | Kayser Memorial Bonspiel | Schenectady Curling Club | February 11, 2027 | Mixed | GNCC-only |
| 19 | Elisabeth Childs Challenge | Rochester Curling Club (NY) | February 25, 2027 | Womens | GNCC-only |
| 20 | Dakota Territory 5U | Williston Basin Curling Club | March 5, 2027 | Open | Hybrid |
| 21 | Denver 5U Qualifier | Denver Curling Club | March 18, 2027 | Open | None |
| 22 | Indiana Stones and the Temple of Brooms | Circle City Curling Club | April 2, 2027 | Open | None |
| 23 | The Space Race | Rocket City Curling Club | April 2, 2027 | Open | None |
About USA Curling
Founded in 1958 and headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA Curling is the National Governing body for the Olympic sport of curling and the Paralympic sport of wheelchair curling in the United States. The mission of USA Curling is to grow, strengthen, and advocate for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of curling in the United States by prioritizing accessibility and programmatic development from grassroots to podium. USA Curling is sponsored by Columbia Sportswear, the Dale’s family of beers, Twin Cities Orthopedics, Training HAUS, Ice, Sports & Solar (ISS), Rock Solid Productions, Jet Ice, and Laurie Artiss. USA Curling is a proud member of World Curling and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee. To learn more, visit usacurling.org.
