At the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics, there was two tournaments and two sets of medals awarded for each tournament. There was a mixed team curling tournament and a mixed doubles curling tournament.
The mixed team curling teams consisted of two boys and two girls from the same NOC/country.
The sixteen qualified teams competed in two divisions of round robin play. The top four teams from each group advanced to the quarterfinals, where the teams played a single knockout tournament to determine the winner.
The mixed NOC doubles curling teams consisted of one boy and one girl from different NOCs. The mixed doubles competition took place after the mixed team competition; the same athletes competing in the mixed event competed in the mixed doubles event. The mixed doubles teams was selected by the organizing committee based on the final rankings from the mixed team competition. The resulting 32 teams played a single knockout round to determine the winner.
The qualification of NOCs to the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics was determined using qualification points. The qualification points are allotted based on the nations' final rankings at international junior curling championships, which include the regional championships (the European Junior Curling Challenge and the Pacific-Asia Junior Curling Championships) and the World Junior Curling Championships. Nations that qualify from the regional championships to the world championships only receive points from their final ranking at the world championships. The results from the 2013–14 and 2014–15 curling seasons are considered for qualification to the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics. The points are distributed as follows:
World Championships
Final rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Points
20
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
Regional Championships
Final rank
1
2
3
4
5
Points
10
8
6
5
4
The following table shows the qualification points earned by each country in both men's and women's junior championships. The points for each championship are cumulative over the last two years.[2]
^ The North American and South American teams are qualified automatically by virtue of their affiliation with the World Curling Federation, since the number of qualification spots equals the number of nations affiliated with the WCF.
^ The Asian teams are qualified as no more than three nations affiliated in the region chose to participate.
