Curlers Peterman & Gallant are first athletes nominated to Team Canada for Milano Cortina 2026

Team Canada has its first two athletes for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.

Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant have been officially nominated as Canada’s entry in mixed doubles curling.

The news was announced two days after the conclusion of the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in Fredericton, New Brunswick where they finished sixth.

Combined with Canada’s fifth-place finish at the 2024 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, that was enough to secure Canada one of the seven spots awarded in the Olympic tournament via the Mixed Doubles Olympic Qualification Points ranking.

As the host nation, Italy was already guaranteed to have a mixed doubles team at Milano Cortina 2026. Joining Canada among the first batch of qualifiers were Estonia, Great Britain (represented by Scotland at the world championship), Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, and the United States. The last two spots in the field will be awarded in December at the Olympic Qualification Event which will take place in Kelowna, B.C.

Peterman and Gallant had earned the right to qualify themselves for Milano Cortina 2026 by winning the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in early January. Facing the best of the best from across the country, Peterman and Gallant went undefeated throughout the tournament to become Team Canada for this year’s world championship and next year’s Olympic Games.

“Since Jocelyn and I started playing mixed doubles, it’s been our dream to represent Canada at the Winter Olympics as teammates and we’re going to embrace this opportunity. We appreciate that Curling Canada adjusted its qualifying process for mixed doubles in order to provide more time to get ourselves ready for the Games and we’ll be using that time to be best of our ability to be in peak form in Italy,” said Gallant.

Milano Cortina 2026 will mark the fourth time that Peterman and Gallant will compete internationally as Team Canada in mixed doubles curling. They previously competed at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship in 2019 and 2022, winning the silver medal in their first appearance. They had formed their mixed doubles partnership in 2016 and won that year’s Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.

The married parents of a nearly two-year-old son, Luke, will be heading to their second straight Olympic Winter Games, but their first as teammates. Both made their Olympic debuts at Beijing 2022 where they competed in their respective four-person events. Gallant won bronze in the men’s event as the second on Team Gushue; Peterman was the second on Team Jones which finished fifth overall, one spot shy of making the playoffs.

“To be an Olympian once is amazing, but to have the opportunity to do it twice, and also to do it with my husband as a teammate, will be a true privilege, and we just can’t wait to be in Italy next year. We’re excited about the road in front of us and we will be doing everything we can to prepare ourselves for the Olympics,” said Peterman.

It has been a busy first few months of 2025 for Peterman and Gallant. They both competed at their respective national championships—the Tournament of Hearts (women) and the Brier (men)—with their current four-person teams in February and March. After Team Jacobs won the Brier, Gallant competed at his fourth career World Men’s Curling Championship and helped bring home the bronze medal in early April.

Mixed doubles curling was added to the Olympic program at PyeongChang 2018 where Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris won the inaugural gold medal. Morris competed in the event again at Beijing 2022, this time with Rachel Homan. They finished fifth, one spot outside of a playoff position. 

Canada has won 12 Olympic medals all time in curling, the most of any country. Canada also leads the all-time Olympic gold medal list with six. 

Mixed doubles will kick off the curling competition at Milano Cortina 2026 on Wednesday, February 4, two days before the opening ceremony. The round robin will run through February 9, with the semifinals taking place in the evening. The medal matches will follow on February 10.

The Olympic curling competition will be held at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, a historic venue that previously hosted the opening ceremony, figure skating, and some hockey games during the 1956 Olympic Winter Games.

As for which teams will be Team Canada in the women’s and men’s Olympic tournaments, that will be decided at the 2025 Canadian Curling Trials taking place November 22-30 in Halifax. Canadian curlers are now permitted to compete in multiple disciplines at the Olympic Games, so Peterman and Gallant will have a chance to qualify for Milano Cortina 2026 in four-person curling. Team Kaitlyn Lawes and Team Brad Jacobs are among the teams that have earned Trials berths.  

Team Canada Mixed Doubles Curlers at Milano Cortina 2026:

Jocelyn Peterman (Chestermere, AB)
Brett Gallant (Chestermere, AB)