Three curling events will be contested at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Games. There is a team event for both the men and the women, which consists of four players competing on a rink (team) with a fifth alternate. 

There's also mixed doubles, with a man and woman on a two-person representing their country.

Men's and women's curling games consist of ten "ends." Ends are similar to innings in baseball. In each end, teams deliver eight stones, two per person on a four-person team. In mixed doubles, rinks deliver five stones per end, with one pre-placed stone in designated positions on the ice.

Scoring is determined after all stones have been thrown from one side of the sheet (ice) toward the other where the "house" — the ring of circles that make up the scoring area — is located. The objective is to deliver the stones as close as possible to the center of the house, also called the button. Rinks employ strategies to knock their opponents' stones out of play or even block them from landing a desired shot. 

Teams score a point for each stone that is closer to the button than their opponents' closest stone as long as the stone is within six feet of the button.

The squad with the most points at the end of ten ends (eight ends for mixed doubles curling) wins. If there's a tie after the final end, a sudden death extra end(s) with the first team to score emerging victorious.

At the 2026 Winter Games, 10 rinks in each of the three disciplines qualified to compete in the Winter Olympic curling events, meaning 30 in total will have the opportunity to compete for gold at Milan Cortina.

Every curling season, points are allocated by World Curling, the global governing body of the sport. The eight highest-ranked National Olympic Committees (NOCs) in each discipline, based on Olympic qualification points (OQP) earned in events from 2024-2025, qualified for the Winter Olympics. 

Italy automatically qualified given their status as the host country for each competition as the host. Had Italy not finish in the top eight in any of the disciplines, then only the top-seven teams ranked by qualification points would have earned a bid.

Because Italy did place in the top eight in the men's and women's divisions, the rinks ranked 9-13 by OQPs, along with three NOCs who posted the best records in a pre-qualification event, moved on to the Olympic Qualification Event (OQE) in December of 2025. The rinks that finished first and second in the OQE booked their tickets to Milan Cortina. Team Casper (men's rink) and Team Peterson (women's rink) of the United States qualified for the Winter Games during the OQE.

In mixed doubles, any team that qualified for the 2024 or 2025 World Mixed Doubles Championships that hadn't yet qualified for the Winter Games, competed at the OQE. Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse, the mixed doubles rink representing the U.S., posted strong enough results during the world championships to clinch an Olympic berth.

In women's curling, Canada earned the most qualification points among the field of countries thanks to its dominance winning back-to-back curling world titles entering the Milan Cortina Games. They are captained by skip Rachel Homan, who has competed at two Olympics but still is seeking her first medal. 

Historically, Canada is considered the best curling country, with 12 all-time medals (six gold), just one more than Sweden. Despite the country's dominance in the sport, neither the men's nor the women's team has earned gold at a Winter Olympics in curling since 2014.

While Sweden's men's team won gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics (after famously losing to the United States' Team Shuster in the 2018 Pyeongchang final), Great Britain enters as the top qualifier for the Milan Cortina Games. With skip Bruce Mouat at the helm, Great Britain pushed Sweden to an extra end in the gold medal game in Beijing four years ago, losing on the final shot. They'll have a chance for redemption at the 2026 Games.

The strongest American rink comes from the mixed doubles category. Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse, winners of the 2023 Mixed World Doubles Championships, qualified for the Milan Cortina Games after emerging victorious at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in February of 2025 and placing fifth at the 2025 World Championships. 

As the No. 8 qualifier, the U.S. will face a tough lineup of competition at the Games. Italy’s own Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner went undefeated en route to a gold medal in Beijing and then dominated the 2025 World Championships, posting a flawless 11-0 record. They’ve never lost in international competition. 

Meanwhile, Estonia and 2024 world champions Sweden enter with the most qualification points of the entire field.

Curling events will be held in the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, the same venue that was used for figure skating during the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

A view of the Olympic Ice Stadium in Cortina, Italy.

Getty Images

Three rinks will represent the United States, all of whom are underdogs but have demonstrated the ability to perform well under immense pressure.

Team Casper dethroned the king of American curling, John Shuster — who led his squad to gold in a Cinderella Story at the 2018 Games and had participated in five straight Winter Olympics — at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in November and punched their tickets to Milan Cortina a month later at the Olympic Qualification Event (OQE). 

Led by skip (the rink’s captain) Danny Casper, the Olympic neophytes will face their toughest challenge yet on the biggest stage, but already have proven they can hang with the world’s elite. 

Team Peterson returns to the Games for its second straight Winter Olympics. The rink decimated the field at the U.S. Team Trials, and like Team Casper, secured its Olympic berth at the OQE. 

Composed of skip Tabitha Peterson, her sister Tara Peterson, dual-event Olympian Cory Thiesse and Taylor Anderson-Heide, the 2025 national champions are known for their poise and calm in big spots. 

Thiesse is pulling double duty in Milan Cortina, partnering with Korey Dropkin to represent the U.S. in mixed doubles. The two-athlete squad won the world championships in 2023 and finished fifth in the event this year, which was enough to qualify them for the Winter Olympics.