By Adam Laskaris
Let’s set the record straight: the women’s curling gold medal at Milano Cortina 2026 is Canada’s to lose.
The team skipped by Rachel Homan has won each of the last two world championships, and eight Grand Slam titles since 2022 with their current lineup. That’s enough of a resume to last a lifetime for most curlers, let alone in a single quadrennial.
In 2023-24 and 2024-25, they went an outstanding 142-15 over two seasons, including a 59-12 record over the top 10 teams in the world, as per Ken Pomeroy’s double-takeout.com ranking. The 2025-26 season hasn’t quite been as dominant: they’re “just” 12-9 against the world’s 10 best teams by Pomeroy’s ranking, though they are one of just three teams with a +.500 record against that group (and are 37-3 against everyone else). In theory, Homan’s rink has earned enough respect to pretty much slot them in as the odds-on favourite.
The curling gods, however, have shown little respect to theory when it comes to deciding Olympic medals over the years.
Homan knows better than anyone that Olympic success doesn’t come simply by whatever resume you might carry heading into an event. Winning an Olympic gold requires both a good enough week to get into one of four playoff spots, and then two more wins when the pressure is as high as it’ll ever be in your career.
A world champion in 2017, Homan’s rink faltered to a 4-5 record at the 2018 Games, becoming the first Canadian women to ever miss the podium since the sport’s introduction into the Olympic program in 1998.Emma Miskew is the only other player returning from that lineup, with Sarah Wilkes linking up with the team in 2021 and Tracy Fleury in 2022.
Homan got another shot at the Olympics in 2022, albeit under unique circumstances. With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing Curling Canada to cancel the mixed doubles Olympic trials, Homan and John Morris were selected as the duo for the discipline the latter had won a gold medal in four years earlier. A loss by a matter of inches in their final round robin match to the eventual Italian gold medallists eliminated Homan and Morris from the playoff picture.
But this edition appears to be as well-oiled a machine as a curling team could be.
“We're ready together as one unit. Here we come, Italy,” Homan told reporters following the team’s Olympic Trials.
Time will tell if that proclamation comes true.
A familiar rival
Homan’s closest competitor on the world stage has been a Swiss rink skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni, with Alina Paetz throwing fourth rocks.
Before Homan’s rink truly found their groove, Tirinzoni was seen as the class of the world, winning four straight world titles from 2019-2023, with the 2020 event cancelled.
In both of Homan’s most recent world titles, it was the Swiss picking up the silver.
And while Homan picked up the first three Grand Slam events of the season, Tirinzoni’s rink came away with the title in each of the last two, while making the finals in every event of the season.
Who else is in the field?
Due to multiple top rinks from Japan, Canada, South Korea, and Switzerland (and only one team competing per country), just five of the top 10 teams under the current World Curling ranking system will actually be at the Olympics. 2018 Olympic gold medallist Anna Hasselborg’s rink out of Sweden (world no.9) returns for a third straight Games, while 2024 world bronze medallist Eun-ji Gim out of South Korea (world no. 3) makes her Olympic debut.
Japan is seeking a third straight medal in the women’s discipline, though with a rink made of first-time Olympians, skipped by world No. 7 Sayaka Yoshimura. Those three rinks (along with the aforementioned Canada and Switzerland sides) form the top two tiers of teams competing, with the eventual semifinalists most likely being composed out of some combination of those teams.
But in an unforgiving round robin with little room for error, perhaps there’s room for a Cinderella run or two. Denmark’s rink skipped by Madeline Dupont (world No. 11), Team USA’s entry led by Tabitha Peterson (world No. 13), China’s Rui Wang-led team (world no. 18), round out the top-20 teams in the field, while Great Britain’s Rebecca Morrison throws fourth stones on the world’s 21st-ranked team.
And then in a class of their own there’s Italy, who have fallen all the way to 32nd the world rankings after a tough few years on tour, but qualified automatically as the host country.
Stefania Constantini skips the team after picking up a mixed doubles bronze alongside Amos Mosaner, but the Italian team hasn’t quite found the right mix to remain a top rink in the four-player game. The action gets underway Thursday morning at 3:05 a.m. ET.
Full schedule and standings can be seen each day here.
