The 2021 Championship was originally planned to be held February 28 to March 6, 2021 at Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena in Irvine, California and also be the Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials for the 2022 Winter Olympics.[2] In December, 2020, the USCA announced that all remaining 2020–21 events would be either cancelled or postponed until late spring 2021. This postponement delayed the Mixed Doubles Championship until after the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Championship and so the 2020 champions, Tabitha Peterson and Joe Polo, were selected to represent the United States. This gave the team the opportunity to compete at Worlds which they missed the previous year when the 2020 World Mixed Doubles Championship was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] On March 29, 2021 it was announced that the 2021 Mixed Doubles Championship will be held in conjunction with the Women's Nationals and Men's Nationals in a bio-secure bubble at Wausau Curling Club in Wausau, Wisconsin in May, 2021.[4] Due to the pandemic, it was decided to separate the 2021 Mixed Doubles Olympic Trials from the National Championship and delay the trials until fall 2021.
Format and qualification
As of 2019, the event consists of twelve teams participating in a two-pool preliminary round-robin, with the top three teams in each pool advancing to the playoffs. Qualification for the event is as follows:[1]
Previous national mixed doubles champion qualifies,
Previous Olympic team qualifies,
Two teams qualify based on being the top American finishers in two designated mixed doubles bonspiels,
Four teams qualify based on standings in the World Curling Tour order of merit,
One team may qualify based on the discretion of the USCA Director of Coaching, and
Three or four teams qualify based on performance in the Mixed Doubles Challenge Round tournament.