By Ben Hoppe
The first curling discipline of Milano Cortina 2026 has wrapped, and we've crowned a champion after an epic tournament.
Sweden Golden in Cortina
On Friday evening in Cortina, the mixed doubles event of Milan Cortina 2026 was halfway done, and Sweden and the United States were going in opposite directions.
The United States was undefeated at 4-0, including an emotional victory over Canada, while Sweden was reeling from their third consecutive loss.
The skid culminated with a scoreless showing against Norway, a game where Sweden had hammer in every end and failed to score. Isabella and Rasmus Wranå kept their heads up, winning three of their final four round-robin games and qualified for the medal rounds.
“Mixed doubles, anything can happen,” said Isabella on Monday after their semifinal win over Great Britain. “I'm so proud of how I came back from that."
The siblings from Sweden continued their strong run in a final against the United States, with Rasmus Wranå primarily trying to prevent Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin from generating momentum.
Meanwhile, Isabella came through in the clutch to build and maintain a Swedish advantage.
Making her Olympics debut, Wranå made a millimeter-perfect draw to score two in the second, and the intensity only ramped up from there. The United States had a few opportunities to score multiple points in the first part of the game, but Sweden forced Cory Thiesse to throw low-percentage shots.
Both teams put incredible amounts of pressure on each other, and Isabella rose to the occasion each time. She made a draw to the button against four counters from the United States in the fourth end, a precise tap to score a single in the sixth with the power play, and importantly, made a double to limit Thiesse and Dropkin to a score of two in the penultimate end.
The most important shot of her career, though, came in the eighth end after the United States shot stone peeked out from under the Sweden guard. As she did all game, Isabella Wranå delivered with her brother Rasmus sweeping the shot to victory and the gold medal.
"Of course, you're nervous. It's the last shot. If you make it, it's an Olympic gold, but we kept calm. We talked about how we're going to throw it and I knew that I had a really strong sweeper, so I felt good," she said after the game to reporters.
Sweden was a little sharper than the United States all game, and that was borne out in the final score. The brother and sister are the first sibling pair to medal in mixed doubles, and they set the standard high with gold.
“Rasmus and Isabella are great curlers. They deserve this. They played amazing,” said Korey Dropkin to NBC's Kira K. Dixon after the game. The United States duo made waves back in their home country with their run to the podium, earning the first ever medal for their country in the mixed doubles discipline.
"Obviously would have loved to come home with a gold medal, but Sweden earned that and we earned the silver medal. My gosh, I'm just so darn proud of us. It's a dream come true," Dropkin told reporters after the game.
New ground broken
Cory Thiesse is the first American woman to win a medal in curling. After the game, she acknowledged what this experience has meant to her and what legacy she hopes to leave behind.
“It's been a long time coming. It's a big day for USA curling. Being on the podium is huge and a big day for women's curling in the United States," Thiesse said.
Italy Secures Bronze with Hometown Support
Throughout the entire week of the mixed doubles event, it wasn’t hard to tell when Italy was on the ice. The home crowd at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium has been loud, boisterous, and unabashed in their show of support for Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner.
The 2022 mixed doubles gold medalists were clearly disappointed to not be able to deliver a gold to their supporters after their semifinal loss to the United States, and they recognized how valuable it was to earn some hardware on home ice.
"It was really nice to play in front of these fans,” Mosaner said on Monday.
“They were really good and supporting us, but we have to come back tomorrow and try to fight for bronze.” And fight they did. Italy played a suffocating game against Great Britain’s Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat. Neither team was able to score multiple points in any end despite multiple valiant efforts from Great Britain. The difference in the end was the ability of Italy to steal in in the first and fourth ends with Stefania Constantini as the star.
As she had done all event, Constantini routinely precise draws to avoid giving up any steals to Great Britain and cut down any opportunities for big scores. In the end, it was only fitting that it was Constantini to make the open hit for a single point to secure a medal for the victory to the delight of the Italian crowd.
For Dodds and Mouat, they had to experience the opposite end of the brutal volatility of mixed doubles curling. After starting the event 7-0, they lost three of their last four games to end up in fourth place for the second consecutive Olympics. The curlers from Great Britain have to put this in the rearview mirror quickly, with four-person play starting on Wednesday evening in Cortina.
"Unfortunately, we did the same four years ago. It's hurting just as much as four years ago," Dodds said. "There's still a lot of curling to go and this is not going to affect us in the men's and women's (competitions). There are still medals to be won. We're going to draw a line after this, sort of debrief and move on to the next event."
Lead photo by Anil Mungal/TCG
