When curling appeared as a medal sport at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games, many believed it was making its debut as an official Olympic sport after years. However, a 2006 discovery by the Scottish newspaper The Herald spurred the IOC to recognize that the 1924 Winter Games in Chamonix, France, was the setting for curling’s debut as a medal sport and not as a demonstration sport, as previously was thought.

The three-team competition at the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix was won by Great Britain, which defeated Sweden and France. Eight years later, curling was back as a demonstration sport in Lake Placid. There was an eight-team tournament between four teams from the U.S. and four teams from Canada. The Canadians swept the top-four places, with the team from Manitoba winning the title.

Curling also was included at the 1936 and 1964 Winter Games, though not officially as a “demonstration sport”. At the 1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Games, eight teams competed in a specialized version of German curling; one of the teams from Austria won. Curling also was held at the 1964 Games in Innsbruck.

Twenty-four years later, curling returned to the Winter Games as a demonstration sport. At the Calgary Games, curling-crazed Canadians snatched up the 21,000 tickets to the six days of competition almost as soon as they went on sale and the sport sold out faster than anything except for figure skating and speed skating. The Canadian women did not disappoint their fans, as the women’s team finished first. The Canadian men did not fare as well, placing third behind Norway and Switzerland.

Curling’s final appearance as a demonstration sport came at the 1992 Albertville Games. The Swiss men, skipped by Urs Dick, and the German women, skipped by Andrea Schopp, won the men’s and women’s tournaments, respectively. The U.S. men’s team, skipped by Bud Somerville, finished third.

Curling returned as a medal sport at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games. Sandra Schmirler’s Canadian team won the women’s title, defeating Denmark in the final. The Swiss team skipped by Patrick Hurlimann defeated Canada in the final to win the men’s gold medal.

Despite winning 29 of the 47 men’s world championship golds prior to the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, Canada’s men had taken silver at both the Nagano and Salt Lake Games. The Canadians, led by Brad Gushue, rectified that ignominious mark by winning gold in Torino. The U.S. men’s rink, skipped by Pete Fenson, beat Great Britain to claim the bronze medal, the first U.S. curling medal at an Olympic Winter Games. Anette Norberg and her Swedish team defeated Switzerland to capture gold in the women’s tournament.

After curling appeared as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Calgary Games, the 2010 Vancouver Games marked the first time curling appeared as a medal sport in the curling-crazed nation of Canada. Though Scotland generally is regarded as the birthplace of curling, it’s Canada where the sport blossomed and evolved. The Canadian men, led by Kevin Martin, put on quite a performance for the hosts, winning gold while becoming the first nation to go undefeated during an Olympic tournament. Canada’s women failed to complete a sweep the curling gold medals, as Cheryl Bernard’s rink fell to Norberg’s Swedish squad in the gold medal final.

At the 2014 Sochi Games, it was the Canadian women's team, skipped by Jennifer Jones, that went through the whole competition undefeated, the first time that happened at an Olympic women's curling competition. It was the first gold medal for Canada in women's curling since the sport debuted in 1998. Canadian Brad Jacobs and his team made it a gold-medal sweep for Canada in 2014 by winning the men's tournament. It marked the third-straight gold medal for Canada in men's curling, all of which were won by different teams. Canada was the only nation to have won a medal at every Olympics in men's curling since it returned to the program in 1998.

Mixed doubles debuted as a discipline at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, an altered format to team curling that saw more Canadian success. Canada won the inaugural mixed doubles curling event with John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes dominating the eight-team round robin, only losing to Norway and winning the final over Switzerland 10-3.

At the most recent Winter Olympics, Italy won its first Olympic medal in curling, winning the second-ever mixed doubles curling tournament. Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner 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. At age 22, Constantini became the youngest Olympic curling gold medalist.

While the sport originated in Scotland, Great Britain had not seen a gold medal since the women's curling team won at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. Despite going 5-4 in pool play, skip Eve Muirhead led her team to a nailbiting upset win against Sweden 12-11 and a blowout finals win against Japan for Great Britain's first Olympic curling gold medal in 20 years. 

The Americans' performance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics was a historic one. Led by John Shuster, the U.S. men's curling team defeated Sweden by a score of 10-7 in the gold medal final to win the United States its first-ever Olympic curling title. Sweden, the top-ranked team in the world, was the heavy favorite to win gold in Pyeongchang. The U.S. only finished the round robin stage with an unremarkable 5-4 record, but Shuster, along with Tyler George, Matt Hamilton and John Landsteiner, managed to pull off the massive upset against the Swedes in the final. Meanwhile, the Canadians' spectacular run of success came to an end as they failed to earn a medal in men's curling for the first time in Olympic history. They lost to Switzerland 7-5 in the bronze medal match.

Besides the American underdogs led by Shuster and Hamilton, Schmirler led Canada to their first-ever Olympic gold medal and became an icon in the sport. Affectionately known as “Schmirler the Curler,” she had captured her third world title the year before the 1998 Nagano Games, and consequently entered the Olympic tournament as the favorite. Schmirler had given birth to her third child only eight weeks before the Canadian selection trials and returned to Canada after her gold-medal performance an enormously popular figure. Less than a year later, however, doctors discovered a malignant tumor in Schmirler’s chest cavity. She died of cancer in March 2000 at age 36.

Becoming a consistent force in Olympic curling at the last three Winter Olympics, Niklas Edin has been a skip for Sweden at the Winter Olympics for over a decade. Making his Winter Olympic debut in 2010, Edin is a seven-time world champion, seven-time European champion and three-time Olympic medalist, winning the most recent men's tournament in Beijing. His dominance on the international stage certifies him as leading one of the most successful curling teams of all time.

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. Additionally, Canada won the inaugural mixed doubles tournament at the 2018 PyeongChang Games.

Recently, Sweden has been the most notable country in Olympic curling. Across all disciplines at the last three Olympics, Sweden has won seven medals, including one in each discipline and has claimed medals at all three of the last Olympics. Team Edin enters the 2026 Milan Cortina Games as the defending Olympic champions.

Great Britain, where the sport originated (more specifically in Scotland), qualified for all three disciplines at the Olympics in 2026 and have won four medals at the past three Winter Olympics. They field the men's 2025 Curling World Champions, Team Mouat, led by skip Bruce Mouat.

The oldest medalist in curling at the Winter Olympics was Carl August Kronlund, a member of Sweden's silver-medal-winning team at the inaugural 1924 Chamonix Winter Olympics. Kronlund was 58 years old when he earned the silver medal, making him the oldest athlete ever to win a Winter Olympic medal.

At 21 years old, Korean Kim Cho-Hui became the youngest Olympic medalist in curling when South Korea's women's curling team won silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics on home soil.

Oskar Eriksson, who won gold at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics on Sweden's Team Edin, has the most Olympic medals in curling. Along with his first gold medal in Beijing, Eriksson won a bronze in the mixed doubles curling event, putting him one medal ahead of Edin for most curling medals all-time.

Edin, who began his Olympic curling career at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, earned his first medal at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics when Sweden beat China in the bronze medal match. A fifth alternate on Team Edin at the time, Eriksson earned his first medal with Edin, but did not play in the tournament. Eriksson later became a starter for Team Edin, and the duo went on to win silver in the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games and gold at the 2022 Beijing Games.

Currently, there is a sixteen-way tie for the most Olympic curling medals all-time by a female, with no Olympian having more than two medals. Five Olympians have two gold medals: Sweden's Team Norberg (Anette Norberg, Eva Lund, Catherine Norberg-Lindahl and Anna Svaerd-Le Moine) and Canada's Kaitlyn Lawes. 

Eight of the 16 two-time medalists are Swedish; four of the Swedes are set to compete at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games as part of Team Hasselborg (Anna Hasselborg, Sara McManus, Agnes Knochenhauer and Sofia Scharback).