Women’s curling returns to the national stage on Tuesday, as the 2026 Olympic Team Trials get underway in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, streaming live on Peacock. 

The five-day event will determine which U.S. national team slides closer to qualifying for the 2026 Winter Games in Milan Cortina. 

Two-time Olympian Tabitha Peterson leads the formidable Team Peterson into the spiel (tournament), where they will face America’s best in Team Cousins, Team Strouse and Team Johnson.

Like the men’s event, the two rinks that emerge from the round-robin event with the best records will move onto the finals. The winner of the best two-out-of-three series earns the chance to compete in the Olympic Qualification Event in December, joining seven other countries fighting for two final spots in Milan Cortina.

Here’s the full schedule, along with what to know about the teams.

Team Peterson is the unofficial ruler of the women’s curling queendom in the United States. Led by skip Tabitha Peterson, Team Peterson has won three consecutive national championships, as well as four out of the last five. In that timeframe, the rink represented the country at the 2022 Winter Games, finishing in sixth place. No athlete from any other team competing at the Trials has participated in the Olympics. 

Their experience excelling on the sheet when the lights shine brightest give Team Peterson a definitive edge. 

“I think having that high level of pressure moments is beneficial,” she remarked. “As a team, and me personally, we've been in a lot of these situations, and so we've had a lot of practice.”

The foursome faced a new obstacle around this time last year when sisters Tabitha and Tara Peterson gave birth, taking a leave of absence to be with their babies. Part-time replacements filled in, but as soon as the dynamic duo returned, the squad found its groove, winning the 2025 National Championship.

Team Peterson used the off-season to refine their technical skills, emphasizing communication and delivery form.

“It’s important to try to get everyone on the same line of delivery and the same release point and the same amount of rotations,” Tabitha explains. “Because then it just makes it easier to read the ice and put the broom to it.”

The result? A strong start to the 2025-26 season. They won their first two events and qualified for playoffs in every one since. The early consistency bodes well for Team Peterson as they head into the Trials.

Team Cousins: From left Annmarie Dubberstein (third), Elizabeth Cousins (skip), Allison Howell (second), Liz Janiak (lead)

USA Curling

Team Cousins nearly pulled off a stunning upset at the 2025 National Championships, falling to Team Peterson in the finals, 7-6. Despite the loss, skip Elizabeth Cousins believes the experience was invaluable. 

“We lost a couple of blow-out games early on. In the moment, it was awful. But we took a step back and figured out as a team that a soft focus is what’s best for us,” Cousins explains. 

“When we think too much about the outcome of our shots, our games, our ends, it never really works out. I hope we can keep that philosophy of knowing we’re meant to be here. The results come when we think that way.”

Cousins comes from curling royalty. Her parents are two-time national champions in the mixed doubles event (1987, 1996), and Elizabeth’s dad, Grayland, is the coach of Team Cousins. In many ways, she was bred for the moment. Are she and her team ready to take a leap?

Out of all Trial participants, Team Strouse has undergone the most change over the last 12 months. Delaney Strouse elected to step back from skipping duties and shift to sweeper, a move that isn’t totally uncommon, but is pretty seismic given how much strategy and decision-making are involved. It begs the question, why make the change and risk disrupting chemistry? 

“There's a lot of pressure with being the skip, and I put a lot of pressure on results and how well I was throwing,” she revealed. “I was putting a lot of my self-worth and value on the outcome of the game. I just think that’s really unfair. The way I was treating myself was not any way that I would want my teammates to treat themselves, or I'd want any other human to treat my teammates.”

When Strouse was forced to drop out of the 2025 National Championships midway through due to anxiety, she knew it was time to push the pause button.

“I was kind of miserable and I didn't love curling anymore. But I didn't want to have to give it up because I love the game so much, I love my teammates. This was the best balance on how to kind of continue forward, but also still prioritize my mental health.”

Strouse continues to throw fourth for Team Strouse and Madison Bear officially is in as skip. The adjustment period has taken a bit longer than the squad expected it would, Strouse described the beginning of the season as “rocky.” However, they’ve put together good results during their last two tournaments. In one of them, the St. Paul Cash Spiel, they defeated each of their Team Trials opponents — including the mighty Team Peterson twice — on their way to a runner-up finish.

“They are results we were maybe hoping to see earlier, but I feel really good that it's happening now,” Strouse says. “It's happening at the right time, and it’s giving us a lot more confidence going into this next week.”

Team Cousins: From left Gianna Johnson (third), Allory Johnson (skip), Morgan Zacher (second), Bailey Vaydich (lead)

USA Curling

Team Johnson has the youngest player in the entire Team Trials (Gianna Johnson), men’s event included, as well as the youngest skip (Allory Johnson). Don’t mistake age for lack of accomplishments, though. Team Johnson won the 2025 Junior National Championships, 2025 U18 National Championships and the pre-Trials event in the type of gusty fashion usually displayed by a veteran squad. 

Impressively, they knocked off Team McMakin, who placed third in nationals earlier this year, defeating them in a decisive fifth game (in a best-of-five series), in which they stole three points in the eighth end to clinch victory. Clearly, they can hang with the world’s best and have proven their big-moment metal.