Fresh off their first Olympic curling gold medal, Team Edin, led by renowned curler Niklas Edin, will represent Sweden in the men's curling tournament along with defending Olympic medalists Oskar Eriksson, Christoffer Sundgren and Rasmus Wrana. Edin overcame the hump of securing Olympic gold after their upset to the Americans at the 2018 Winter Games, with a 7-2 record in round-robin play in Beijing. Beating a tough Canadian team in the semifinals, Edin outlasted Scottish skip Bruce Mouat to upset the No. 1 seed in a 5-4 victory. Both teams return as top favorites for the 2026 tournament in Milan Cortina.

At the 2025 Women’s World Championships, Rachel Homan led the Canadians to their second consecutive world title, establishing themselves as gold-medal favorites in Cortina. Homan, a mom of three, has competed at two Olympics but still is seeking her first medal.

Though without much Olympic success, Switzerland fields a strong men's and women's team heading into the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, highlighted by a runner-up position for the men's curling team at the 2025 Curling World Championships. Led by skip Yannick Schwaller, Team Schwaller will compete at their first Winter Olympics after losing to Team Mouat in the world title gold medal match by just one point.

Since losing in the bronze medal match to Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, the U.S. has had mixed results in international competition in curling. The biggest standout is the mixed doubles duo of Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse, who won the mixed doubles 2023 world title in Gangneung, South Korea. Dropkin and Thiesse went 7-2 in the preliminary stage of the tournament and went on to beat Scotland, Canada and finally Japan in the elimination bracket. In the world title match, the pair beat Japan 8-2. Additionally, the duo had a strong performance at the 2025 Mixed Doubles Curling World Championships and qualified for Milan Cortina, clinching the No. 8 qualifying spot.

Though the most notable U.S. curling team of all time with their 2018 gold medal, Team Shuster, led by John Shuster, has yet to qualify for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. Shuster earned one bronze medal at the 2024 Lacombe Pan Continental Championships, but lost the U.S. men's championship to Team Dropkin earlier this year. Tabitha Peterson, a two-time Olympian and skip for the U.S. women's curling team, has yet to qualify for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games. She earned a bronze at the 2023 Pan Continental Championships.

Along with his 2022 silver medalist squad, comprised of Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan, Team Mouat returns for their quest for Olympic gold. Since Beijing, the Scottish team won the 2023 and 2025 world titles as well as the 2022 and 2023 European championships (2024 runner-up). They enter the 2026 Milan Cortina Games as favorites to win gold, backed by 10 Grand Slam titles and a lot of hardware.

After winning the gold medal in 2022, which gave Great Britain its first gold medal in curling in two decades, Eve Muirhead retired from curling competition months after. Her former teammate, Jennifer Dodd, is a member of Team Morrison, who qualified for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games.

At the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, Italy won its first Olympic medal in curling, winning the second-ever mixed doubles curling tournament. Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner will enter the 2026 Games as the defending world champions in mixed doubles as well as the defending Olympic gold medalists. Their 2025 world title run was their first time playing together since the 2022 Games. Even without their automatic qualification, Italy is among the top-three mixed doubles teams with 40 Olympic qualification points (Estonia and Sweden have 41) and has its best chance of capturing a medal in the discipline.

With a stronger campaign at the 2024 Curling World Championships, both the men's and women's Italian curling teams finished 10th in the 2025 Curling World Championships, missing the elimination bracket. It will be tough competition for both disciplines at the Milan Cortina Games.