I wrote this for the puckheads. How did I do?
Once again, our big bruthas at The Hockey News invited us to take over a few of their Feb. print issue pages to preview the Cortina Olympic rockfest.
Hockey battles figure skating every four years for the title of strongest winter Olympic sport in terms of traditional fan interest, but curling only grows in its power with each quadrennial.
As we reported over a year ago, curling is dominating Milano-Cortina 2026 with end-to-end games that started a full two days before the Opening Ceremony and run every single day through to the Closing Ceremony on Feb. 22.
There is now a tsunami of non-stop curling on official television and streaming services. You will love it and your friends, family and workmates cannot escape.
We officially previewed the mixed doubles discipline at the start of the tournament and recently provided a late-stage update analysis – thanks Tomi – and today I thought I’d show you what appears on pages 106 and 107 of the Feb. 2026 “The Rookie” issue of The Hockey News:
And here’s something I wrote for this six-page feature shortly before the Christmas holidays, to set up the mixed doubles viewing experience.
I didn’t do much research. Perhaps this will become obvious.
I tried to keep it fairly simple for the average hockey fan who boasts little to no curling knowledge (although many have knowledge)… how do you think I did? Leave a comment section in our Community area below.
Story starts below this image:
Curling might run the Games schedule but pay zero attention to the oddsmakers when it comes to the mixed doubles discipline.
This format, which debuted its inaugural world championship only in 2008, features one male and one female competitor – no alternates or substitutions – playing a reduced eight ends. There are placer rocks to start each end and a “power play” can be called once per game, allowing extra placements.
It’s fast and furious and there’s no way to predict who is going to win Olympic gold, let alone make the playoffs.
Host Italy are defending champions. Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner went undefeated at Beijing 2022 and then only played once together since then, going undefeated at the 2025 world championship. That’s crazy.
Mosaner, you see, originally wanted to play mixed doubles with his (largely) non-curling girlfriend, and coaches assigned him to compete with Constantini, who actually hails from the tiny host village of Cortina d’Ampezzo. Also crazy.
Love these Norges; this is from their Curling Cares calendar photo shootNorway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten lost the Beijing final to Italy and also won bronze at PyeongChang 2018. The married couple are specialists in this discipline and also have three medals at the world championships.
Canada’s Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant (Calgary) are accomplished in this discipline, and captured a well-deserved Olympic Trials title a year ago at Liverpool, N.S. but have just a silver medal in three career trips to the worlds.
Canada historically struggles in this event – their athletes have won just three medals at 17 worlds – although the first-ever Olympic gold went to Canadians in 2018.
Mwaaah • Stephen Fisher-World CurlingTeams with world championship gold include Sweden’s Isabella and Rasmus Wrana (siblings, 2024), USA’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin (2023) and Great Britain’s Jenn Dodds and Bruce Mouat (2021).
The striking Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill made history with Estonia’s first-ever medal at a worlds in 2024 (bronze) and finished fourth last year. Cortina will also mark Estonia’s Olympic curling debut.
Married couple Briar Hurlimann-Schwaller and Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland placed fourth at the 2024 worlds and were appointed to Cortina.
They seem ready • SWISSCURLINGTwo teams advanced from the last-gasp qualifying event at Kelowna, B.C. in December – Czech Republic and South Korea. Czech rookies Julia Zelingrova and Vit Chabicovsky offer youthful exuberance while Jeong Yeong-seok has a three-time Olympian as a teammate; Kim Seon-yeong won women’s fours silver at PyeongChang 2018.
Eight athletes will also compete in women’s or men’s fours, which starts on Feb. 11: both Italians and Scots (sorry, Brits); Canada’s Gallant, Sweden’s Rasmus Wrana, Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller and Cory Thiesse of the United States.