By John Hodge
The playoff bracket is set for men’s curling at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games where four teams are left competing for gold.
Switzerland and Canada punched their tickets to the semifinal round on Tuesday, while Norway and Great Britain clinched their spots during the final draw of the round robin on Thursday. It was a dramatic morning at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium where four teams had a chance at the two remaining playoff spots, the others being Italy and the United States.
The semifinal games will be played on Thursday evening, followed by the bronze medal game on Friday afternoon and the gold medal game on Saturday night.
Here is a preview of both games. Please note that the higher-ranked seed begins all Olympic playoff games with the hammer.
Switzerland (9-0) vs. Great Britain (5-4)
These are the two top-ranked teams in the world, so it’s not at all surprising for them to be in the playoffs – though many expected them to meet in the final.
The Swiss won the round robin matchup between these two teams on Sunday by a score of 6-5 when they scored the game’s only deuce in the seventh end. Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel, the team’s fourth-thrower, eventually won the game for his team in an extra end with a draw to the four foot.
Switzerland has been dominant all week long, finishing the round robin with a perfect record and leading the field in shooting percentage (88.7). They also have two positional leaders in Schwarz-van Berkel (88.5 percent) and third Schwaller (89.6 percent), while Sven Michel ranks third among seconds (85.1 percent) and Pablo Lachat-Couchepin ranks second among leads (91.8 percent).
Despite being the No. 1-ranked team in the world, it wasn’t a smooth week for Great Britain. Bobby Lammie, the team’s second, finished sixth among seconds (79.9 percent), which was highly unexpected. Bruce Mouat threw a respectable 85.1 percent to finish third among skips but will have to be even better on Thursday night if he wants to lead his team to the gold medal game. After falling just shy of the podium in mixed doubles, Mouat will want to bring back a medal for the second straight Winter Olympics.
Canada (7-2) vs. Norway (5-4)
Brad Jacobs and his rink out of the Glencoe Club in Calgary, Alta. are in a good position to reach the podium in Milano Cortina.
The team finished the round robin second in shooting percentage (86.5) with Jacobs ranked second among skips (86.2 percent), Marc Kennedy ranked third among thirds (85.3 percent), Brett Gallant ranked fifth among seconds (83.8 percent), and Ben Hebert ranked fourth among leads (91.4 percent). The Norwegians clinched their playoff berth with an 8-6 win over Canada on Thursday morning in the final draw of the round robin. Magnus Ramsfjell, the team’s skip, made a sensational angle-raise with his last stone of the first end to score three. The team then led 7-2 at the break after getting two forces and two deuces.
The Canadians scored three in the sixth end and stole one in the seventh end, but weren’t able to complete the comeback as Ramsfjell didn’t have to throw his last stone in the tenth end. Hebert didn’t play in the matchup, leading to speculation the Canadians threw the match to get a more favourable playoff opponent, though they denied this.
“Did you watch the game? It was a good game,” said Kennedy when asked directly about it.
“Brad missed a couple of shots, and I don't know if Magnus missed one. So, no, not the case at all. We played hard. It's a little different not having Benny out there. He's a big part of our team, but no, absolutely not. We were giving it everything we could to win.”
Based out of the Trondheim Curlingklubb located 500 kilometres north of Oslo, Norway ranked ninth in team shooting percentage (80.8) during round robin play. Ramsfjell placed fourth among skips (79.9 percent) while his three teammates each finished bottom-two at their respective positions.
Jacobs and his rink have a combined four Olympic medals, 15 medals from the World Championships, and place 20 spots higher than Ramsfjell on the world rankings.
With that said, anything can happen on the ice, as the Norwegians proved Thursday morning.
“The Olympic semifinal is the toughest game in curling to play, so we’ll have to come out and just be loose, have some fun, and trust that we'll make a whole bunch of shots together,” said Kennedy. “It’s just a lot of nerves. If you win that game, you’re guaranteed an Olympic medal. If you lose, your dreams of gold are dashed, so sometimes in that game, you can feel that a little bit, whereas you don’t feel it the rest of the week. That little bit of fear of losing can creep in. I’ve seen it before, I’ve been a part of it before. It’s really important to just go out, play free, trust your teammates, make a ton of shots and whatever happens, happens.”
Lead photo by TCG/Anil Mungal
