It has been 11 years since Brad Gushue won Winter Olympic gold as he leads the Canadian challenge at the 2017 World Men's Curling Championships starting tomorrow ©Getty Images

Brad Gushue, an Olympic champion 11 years ago in Turin, will skip the Canadian hosts at the World Men's Curling Championships due to begin in Edmonton's Northlands Coliseum tomorrow.

The Coliseum is hosting the global event for the second time after also doing so in 2007.

A record cumulative total of 184,970 spectators attended that event.

Canada will be favourites to successfully defend the title they won last year in Basel.

Gushue is competing in his first Men's World Championships, despite having won an Olympic gold medal at Turin 2006.

Two other world champion skips are among the 12 participating teams.

Scotland's David Murdoch will be seeking to add to victories in 2006 and 2009.

Brad Gushue pictured during the Olympic final at Turin 2006 ©Getty Images
Brad Gushue pictured during the Olympic final at Turin 2006 ©Getty Images

Sweden's Niklas Edin will also chase a repeat of his 2013 and 2015 successes. 

China, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Switzerland and United States are also entered.

China’s skip Rui Liu returns to the world stage for the first time since 2014 as he makes his seventh appearance.

He will seek an improvement of his best fourth-place finish in 2008.

Seventeen sessions of round-robin play will begin tomorrow and continue until Thursday (April 6). 

It will mark the last event at which qualification points are available for the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games.

Tie break and playoff matches will then take place before a final scheduled for April 9.