Down to The Wire in Olympic Men’s Curling

Only one draw remains – on Thursday morning – in the round robin portion of the 2026 Olympic curling competition.

Teams on the bubble are feeling their nerves tested as they try to scrape their way into the semifinals. Once the playoffs begin, every mistake and misstep, or upset loss, is in the past.

On the men’s side, the top two seeds are locked in. Following a 10-4 win over Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway, Yannick Schwaller and Switzerland are undefeated at 8-0. By virtue of their 9-5 win over Canada on Saturday, even if they fall to Italy on Thursday, they will remain at the top of the standings.

Brad Jacobs and Canada reached seven wins with their victory over Joel Retornaz and are locked in at the number two spot. It was a tough defeat for the home team from Italy as they started strong and carried a three point lead into the fourth end. They never scored again and the unlikely result was handshakes after the seventh end and an 8-3 defeat.

Sitting third in the standings, Great Britain (5-4) will need assistance from Canada and Switzerland to continue to the medal round. Bruce Mouat and his team from Scotland soundly throttled the Daniel Casper squad from USA 9-2 in six ends, but earlier losses to Italy and Norway have them snookered. 

Should both Retornaz and Ramsfjell manage victories against their higher-ranked opponents – Schwaller and Jacobs respectively – Great Britain goes home.

For Italy and Norway, a win in the final draw will give them a chance at a medal. In both outcomes where one wins and the other loses, Great Britain takes the fourth spot in the standings and will play Switzerland in the semifinal. Should both teams lose, Mouat reaches third and lands in a rematch against Canada.

Should Italy and Norway both lose, and Germany (3-5) defeats China (2-6) there will be four teams tied with 4-5 records. USA would get the nod to advance based on their 2-1 record amongst the four teams and a head-to-head victory over Norway in the round robin.

A Germany loss to China creates a three-way tie. Italy, Norway and USA all with a record of 4-5 and head-to-head results of 1-1. This scenario would send us to a Draw Shot Challenge (DSC) tiebreaker once again at the Olympic Winter Games; Eve Muirhead of Team GB won gold at Beijing 2022 through this format. 

Casper and Team USA have a strong DSC, currently ranked third at 17.663 cm (yes, they measure to the third decimal place at the Olympics). Italy is close behind in DSC with 18.764 cm and conceivably could overtake them, eliminating USA hopes before the first end. 

Should Italy and Norway lose and Retornaz overtakes Casper in DSC, Italy will move on, despite losing against Norway in the round robin.

In the other game, Niklas Edin and Sweden will take on Lukas Klima’s Czechia (both 2-6).