What you need to know about curling at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games
Canadians are pretty good at curling.
Since the sport made its official return to the Olympic program at Nagano 1998, there hasn’t been a Games in which Team Canada hasn’t won a curling medal. The 12 total medals and six gold medals are the most won by any country in curling.
Whether you’re most excited to watch the women’s tournament or the men’s tournament or the mixed doubles tournament, here’s what you need to know as you cheer on Team Canada:
Who will represent Team Canada in curling at Milano Cortina 2026?
Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant were the first athletes officially nominated to Team Canada for Milano Cortina 2026. After winning the Canadian Mixed Doubles Curling Trials in early January, the married couple secured the Olympic quota spot for Canada (and themselves) with their sixth-place finish at the 2025 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.
READ: Curlers Peterman & Gallant are first athletes nominated to Team Canada for Milano Cortina 2026
Team Canada’s entries in the men’s and women’s tournaments were determined at the Canadian Curling Trials in Halifax in November 2025. Team Homan—skip Rachel Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew, lead Sarah Wilkes, and alternate Rachelle Brown—won the women’s event. Team Jacobs—skip Brad Jacobs, third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, and lead Ben Hebert—won the men’s event. They added Tyler Tardi as their Olympic alternate.
READ: Team Canada’s women’s and men’s curling teams officially nominated for Milano Cortina 2026
Gallant will be the first Canadian curler to compete in mixed doubles and four-player curling at the same Olympic Games. Kennedy will be the first Canadian curler to compete in four Olympic Games. Kennedy and Hebert will be the first Canadian curlers to compete in a four-player tournament at three Olympic Games. Homan will compete at her third straight Olympic Games.
When will curling be held at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games?
Mixed doubles will kick off the curling competition at Milano Cortina 2026. Play will begin on February 4, two days before the Opening Ceremony. The preliminary round robin will run through February 9, with the semifinals taking place that same day. The medal games will be played on February 10.
The men’s tournament will begin on February 11 and the preliminary round robin will continue through February 19. The semifinals take place that same day, followed by the bronze medal game on February 20 and gold medal game on February 21.
The women’s tournament will begin on February 12, with the preliminary round robin running through February 19. The semifinals are on February 20, with the bronze medal game on February 21 and gold medal game on February 22, the day of the Closing Ceremony.
The detailed match schedule can be found here.
What countries are competing in the Olympic curling tournaments?
Based on results from the 2024 and 2025 World Championships, Canada is qualified to compete in all three curling tournaments. That is also true for Italy—who as host nation was guaranteed entry in all three—as well as Great Britain, Sweden, and Switzerland.
The mixed doubles tournament will also include Estonia, Norway, and the United States.
The men’s tournament will also include Czechia, Germany, and Norway.
The women’s tournament will also include China, Denmark, and South Korea.
There is still space for two more countries in each tournament. Who those are will be decided at the Olympic Qualification Event in December 2025.
What is the format of the Olympic curling tournaments?
Each tournament features 10 teams. In the preliminary round, each team plays every other team in a round robin. The top four teams in the standings based on win-loss records advance to the semifinals, with first place playing fourth and second place playing third. The semifinal winners advance to the gold medal game while the semifinal losers face off for bronze.
What is Team Canada’s Olympic curling history?
Canada won the first ever Olympic gold medal in women’s curling as Sandra Schmirler skipped her team to victory at Nagano 1998. After bronze medals at Salt Lake City 2002 (skip: Kelley Law) and Turin 2006 (skip: Shannon Kleibrink), Cheryl Bernard’s team captured silver at Vancouver 2010. Another gold medal was won at Sochi 2014 by Jennifer Jones’ team, the last Olympic medal for Canada in women’s curling.
In men’s curling, Canada won silver at Nagano 1998 (skip: Mike Harris) and Salt Lake City 2002 (skip: Kevin Martin) before three straight gold medals. The streak was started by Brad Gushue’s surprising team of 20-somethings at Turin 2006. With a new team, Kevin Martin earned gold on home ice at Vancouver 2010 and then Brad Jacobs’ team won it all at Sochi 2014. After 16 years away from Olympic ice, Gushue and his longtime vice-skip Mark Nichols led Canada to bronze at Beijing 2022.
Canada won the first ever Olympic gold medal in mixed doubles curling, courtesy of Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris at PyeongChang 2018.
What to know about Team Canada’s opponents at Milano Cortina 2026
Sweden and Great Britain are two consistently strong teams in men’s curling. At Beijing 2022, Niklas Edin finally skipped his Swedish squad to gold after taking silver at PyeongChang 2018 and bronze at Sochi 2014. Edin is a seven-time world champion, most recently in 2024. The other Olympic finalist at Beijing 2022 was Great Britain, skipped by Scotland’s Bruce Mouat. His team won their second world title in three years this past spring.
The runner-up at the 2025 World Championships was Switzerland, who have a very strong backend in skip Yannick Schwaller and fourth stone thrower Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel. Don’t count out the host nation, though. Skip Joel Retornaz made his Olympic debut the last time Italy hosted the Games at Turin 2006. His team won bronze at the 2022 and 2024 World Championships.
Before Canada won back-to-back women’s world titles in 2024 and 2025, Switzerland was the team to beat. Skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni, the Swiss won four straight world titles from 2019 to 2023 and finished as the runners-up to Team Homan the last two years.
China won bronze at the 2025 World Championships after South Korea rounded out the podium the year before. And it’s to your detriment if you forget about Sweden. Skip Anna Hasselborg won Olympic gold at PyeongChang 2018 and bronze at Beijing 2022.
Italy boasts the reigning world champions in mixed doubles. Brits Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds won the silver medal at the 2025 World Championships. Estonia is a country on the rise, with Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill winning silver at the 2024 World Championships and then finishing fourth in 2025.
