Epping inks his end of the bargain

It started as a bit of motivation. Trailing 0-1 in the best-of-three Swiss women's championship final against Silvana Tirinzoni's Olympic silver medalists, coach John Epping told Team Xenia Schwaller that if they went on to win the world title, he'd get his first tattoo.

They took care of the rest. After dropping their opener to Japan 6-3 in Calgary, Schwaller, Selina Gafner, Fabienne Rieder and Selina Rychiger reeled off 13 straight wins to claim the 2026 world women's title, and the team made sure the promise came up after every one of them. Epping, a four-time Grand Slam champion who has skipped in five Olympic Trials, admitted the needle rattled him more than any game ever has. "I think I was more nervous there than in any curling game I've ever played," he told the Grand Slam of Curling.

The design was never in doubt. The team plays out of Zürich's Grasshopper Club, so a grasshopper it was. What Epping didn't know when he made the deal is that all four players would end up getting matching grasshopper tattoos too, a permanent souvenir of a season that took a world junior champion rink to the top of the senior game in their first year with Epping in the coach's chair.