Briar Hürlimann


Briar Hürlimann, is a Swiss curler from Recherswil. She currently throws fourth stones for Team Elena Stern on the World Curling Tour.

Career

Hürlimann first represented Switzerland on the international stage at the 2011 World Junior Curling Championships as third for Manuela Siegrist. They lost the tiebreaker to Sweden's Jonna McManus. She returned the following year at the 2012 World Junior Curling Championships, playing third for Melanie Barbezat. They were less successful than the previous year, finishing with a 3–6 record. After not representing Switzerland in 2013, Hürlimann made back to back appearances at the World Juniors. In 2014, they lost the tiebreaker 7-6 to Sweden's Isabella Wranå. In 2015, they won the bronze medal after defeating Wranå's Swedish team. Also in 2015, she finished fifth at the 2015 World Mixed Curling Championship, playing third for Yannick Schwaller.
In 2017, Hürlimann represented Switzerland at the 2017 Winter Universiade. This time, they could not defeat Wranå in the bronze medal game, settling for fourth. She also played in her first World Women's Curling Championships this season, as the alternate for 2015 World Champion Alina Pätz. She did not play in any games and the Swiss team settled for 8th after a 5–6 round robin record.
The 2018–19 season was a breakout year for Hürlimann and her team of skip Elena Stern, second Lisa Gisler and lead Céline Koller. They played in four Grand Slam of Curling events including winning the 2018 Tour Challenge Tier 2 and the 2018 Women's Masters Basel World Curling Tour event.
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 and qualified for the playoffs threw the C side. They successfully defeated Eve Muirhead in the quarterfinals, Silvana Tirinzoni in the semifinals and Rachel Homan in the final to win the event. They also won the International Bernese Ladies Cup and the Schweizer Cup. For the first time ever, they qualified for the playoffs at a Grand Slam event where they lost to Tracy Fleury in the quarterfinals at the Masters. They also qualified for the playoffs as the number one seed at the National but they also lost in the quarterfinals, this time to Satsuki Fujisawa. Team Stern surprised many when they upset the defending world champion rink Silvana Tirinzoni 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 before the event got cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Swiss championship would be their last event of the season as both the Players' Championship and the Champions Cup Grand Slam events were also cancelled due to the pandemic.

Personal life

Hürlimann's parents Janet Hürlimann and Patrick Hürlimann were also both curlers. Her father won a gold medal at the 1998 Winter Olympics. He is currently employed as a teach. Briar was named for the Brier, Canada's national men's curling championship.

Grand Slam record

Event2018–192019–20
MastersDNPQF
Tour ChallengeT2Q
The NationalDNPQF
Canadian OpenQQ
Players'QN/A
Champions CupQN/A

Teams