Wheelchair curling made its debut at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin, Italy, featuring a mixed team event that involved four athletes comprised of both genders. 

As in able-bodied curling, players take turns throwing stones down a sheet of ice with the goal of landing in the center of the target (the house) to score points. Teams play "ends," or rounds, similar to innings in baseball, where each team throws their respective stones before scoring and resetting the curling stones for the next end.

Points are awarded to the team that has the stone(s) closest to the center of the house, also know as the tee. A team earns one point per stone in the house closer to the tee than any opponent's stone, which makes it possible to score multiple points in an end. 

The team with the most amount of points after eight ends wins the match. If there is a tie, teams will play extra ends until someone scores. The team that most recently scored in an end delivers the first stone in the following end, giving the other team the "hammer" (or last stone thrown in an end), which is considered an advantage.

There is no sweeping in wheelchair curling, thus requiring pinpoint accuracy, precision and a different strategy by athletes to curl stones into the house without any secondary help. Athletes also use a delivery stick to throw stones into the house from a stationary wheelchair. 

Athletes are not permitted to touch the ice with their feet and the wheels of their wheelchair must be in contact with the ice upon delivery.

A second discipline, mixed doubles, will make its debut at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, which involves one man and one woman teammate representing a country, with a format similar to curling mixed doubles. 

Whereas eight stones are delivered by each team per end in mixed team curling, only five stones are used in mixed doubles curling. Competing mixed doubles squads begin each end with a "positioned" stone placed in a specified location on the sheet before delivering any stones. 

Once per game in mixed doubles, teams may use a "Power Play" when they possess the hammer to move each team's positioned stones to the side of the house. This method of unclogging the sheet mostly is used to generate multiple points in the end or to defend a lead.

At the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics, China won on their home ice over Sweden in the gold medal match by a score of 8-3. The U.S. wheelchair curling mixed team fell short of qualifying for the semifinal round and ranked as the No. 5 team after round-robin play.

Wheelchair curling at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics will take place from Wednesday, March 4 to Saturday, March 14.

Events begin before the Paralympics Opening Ceremony, starting with mixed doubles round-robin play. After the conclusion of round-robin play, the top-four teams from each discipline qualify for the semifinals. The mixed doubles semifinal round begins on March 10 and the mixed team semifinal begins on March 13.

The gold medal match for mixed doubles is scheduled for March 11, while the mixed team gold medal match will wrap up wheelchair curling on March 14.

Mixed curling at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics will take place at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. It's the same venue that held able-bodied curling at the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.

The stadium also was home to figure skating in the 1956 Winter Olympics, where Tenley Albright became the first American woman to win a gold medal in figure skating.

There will be mixed team and mixed doubles events in wheelchair curling at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics, each with round-robin play and semifinals that include the top-four teams based on round-robin record. 

Winners of the first semifinal match will play for gold and silver, while losers of the semifinal round will play for bronze.

Oyuna Uranchimeg

Born and raised in Mongolia, Oyuna Uranchimeg was visiting a friend in Minnesota when the unimaginable happened. She was involved in a car accident that resulted in permanent paralysis from the waist down. 

Uranchimeg became depressed and wanted to take her life. “I started collecting my pain pills with an intent to take enough of them at once and sleep forever,” she revealed. 

Ultimately, it was her son who kept her going, and a move to the States that provided the accessibility resources she needed to live more comfortably. 

At 43 years old, she started curling, and she competed in her first Paralympics in 2022, finishing 5th (out of 11) in the wheelchair mixed team event. At 52 years old, she’ll have another crack at earning a medal in Cortina.

Steve Emt 

Two-time Paralympian Steve Emt is competing at his third consecutive Winter Paralympic Games, this time sharing the ice with teammate Laura Dwyer in the debuting mixed doubles event in Cortina. 

Emt’s athletic journey began long before he threw stones on the sheet. Growing up, he was a star basketball player, taking his talents to West Point and then to UConn to hoop for legendary coach Jim Calhoun. 

A few years after his collegiate career came to a close, he was drunk driving and got into a car accident that paralyzed him. He discovered wheelchair curling in 2013 to scratch his omnipresent competitive itch, and today travels around the country to share his story and encourage students to drink responsibly.

On the ice, Emt talks, sings and even growls at his team’s rocks as they slide across the sheet. If you hear a falsetto while watching mixed doubles, it’s likely the Hebron, CT native.

Laura Dwyer

Dwyer is embarking on her second Paralympic voyage in Cortina, which she’ll do alongside Emt. 

Together, the tandem are the reigning mixed doubles national champions, finished ninth at the 2025 World Championships (earning the country a Paralympic bid) and won a Team Trials event to clinch a Paralympic berth.

The 48-year-old was born and raised in Wisconsin and used to be a landscaper. In 2012, at work, a 1,000-pound tree branch fell and landed on Dwyer, which resulted in numerous broken ribs, three broken toes and permanent paralysis from the waist down due to a spinal cord injury. 

Seven years after the accident, she discovered wheelchair curling, and since then, has represented the U.S. as an alternate at the 2022 Beijing Paralympics and at three separate world championships.

Matthew Thums

Thums is returning for his second consecutive Paralympic Games to serve as the skip for the United States’ mixed team. In 2022 in Beijing, he led his squad to a 5th-place finish.

When he was 29 years old, the Ogema, Wisconsin native fell 15 feet out of a tree while hunting. The impact caused paralysis of both legs. 

In 2012, Thums discovered wheelchair curling and just three years later, he was selected to join the national team. Since then, he’s represented the United States at five different world championships and one Paralympic Games.

He’ll captain Paralympic veteran Uranchimeg, as well as Paralympic newbies Sean O’Neill, Dan Rose and Katie Verderber, in the team event.