What's happening in the curling world?

It's hard to believe, but both the men's and women's Canadian curling teams were defeated. Canada the worlds Curling superpower is home to 94% of the the worlds curlers and I'm sure expected this even less than I did. Great Britain's team would be the next closes to a favourite, they are Scots and that is where the sport was invented. Italy, home to only 150 curlers compared to well over a million in Canada and has a team in the event only because they are the host nation built up an early lead and held on through an extra end to take a 7-6 victory. The women lost to Japan more convincingly at 5-2, but not as shocking as skip Ayumi Onodera and third Yumie Hayashi have led their team to some excellent finishes in the world championships over the last several years. Quite often they have come within a rock or two of the championship finishing 2d a couple of times and in the top half most of the time. In fact Japan did win last years Pacific Curling Championship so a good run here should come as no great surprise.