There’s a clear favorite among the 10 teams competing in the men’s curling competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

This year’s competition will feature the two winningest Olympic curlers of all time, a team with three curling gold medalists, a few former world champions, plus the team they’ll all be chasing.

Here’s a look at the 10 teams competing in this year’s Games...

Great Britain definitely comes to Cortina as the favorites in the men’s competition.

The team, hailing from Scotland, is skipped by Bruce Mouat, who is coming off of a 4th-place finish in the Milan Cortina mixed doubles competition earlier this week. 

Mouat and his three teammates are all on a mission in Cortina looking to improve upon the silver medal they won at the 2022 Olympics.

Since those Games, Mouat’s team won the world championship in 2023, finished fourth at worlds in 2024, and won it again in 2025. They boasted the most qualification points coming into this year’s Olympics.

"Trying to get over that moment you trained for, well, I guess you could say my entire curling career, and then obviously it didn’t go the way we had hoped, it was pretty tough to get over," Mouat said of the 2022 silver medal. "Other athletes have talked about the Olympic hangover and I can confirm that is a thing. It definitely is a thing."

Mouat is joined on the team by Grant Hardie, Hammy McMillan Jr., and Bobby Lammie, all of whom have competed on the team since 2022.

"There's not many teams that last nine years together or eight years, so you've had to work on that work in the dynamics a lot," Hardie said. "We’ve spent a lot of time in meeting rooms as much as on the ice, and that credit goes to our coaches for that. We’ve got great facilities, great support staff, the usual, not cliche stuff... We are very lucky. We all kind of knew the four of us could have a huge potential together, but you know there was no given it was going to happen straight away. And we've had to work quite hard to get to where we are at the moment."

Mouat and company are looking for Great Britain’s first men’s curling gold medal since 1924.

"When you look back in Beijing, as much as it was great to come home with a medal, it's also what's fueling us to try and get back to Milan Cortina and make sure it's the gold next time," Hardie said.

A team full of players making their Olympic debuts will represent the U.S. in the men’s competition. “Team Casper,” under skip Danny Casper, beat 2018 gold medalists Team Shuster in the U.S. Olympic Trials, securing their spot in Cortina for the first new team to compete for the U.S. in 16 years. 

Team Shuster skip, John Shuster, had represented Team USA in five straight Olympics. When he made his Olympic debut, Casper was just five years old.

Casper’s team will look to forge their own path at this year’s games. The U.S. previously finished fourth at the 2022 Games after winning gold in 2018.

Casper, a 24-year-old from Briarcliff Manor, N.Y., is well-versed in curling. He started playing the sport when he was 11, and comes from a family that knows the game well. His great aunt competed at the 1988 Calgary Olympics when curling was a demonstration sport, and his great uncle, Tom, coached the U.S. men's team at the 1998 Nagano Olympics.

The U.S. skip comes to the Olympics less than two years after he was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which at times has left him barely able to walk. He missed most of the team’s games through the 2024-25 season, but his teammates kept the faith and never thought of replacing him.

Casper added he technically no longer has the disease, but still deals with body aches. 

On the ice, Casper has proven to be a bit more fiery than Shuster, and isn’t afraid to share words with his opponents.

"If my opponents want to get in a trash talk competition with me, they’re not going to win it," Casper said. “My barber is always like, 'You’re such a kind guy,' and I’m like, 'You know, when I’m curling, I’m kind of an a**hole.'"

Casper is joined on the ice by Luc Violette (Luke Stevens, WA), Ben Richardson (Seattle, WA), and Aidan Oldenburg (Mapleton, MN).

Every member of the team is under 28 years old, and none have ever played in a world championship. But they’ll have one veteran in their midst — Rich Ruohonen, who’ll serve as the team’s alternate.

The 54-year-old from Brooklyn Park, MN, started playing with the young team when Casper was unable to compete in 2024.

"I was probably the most sought-after free agent at that point because I had so much experience,” Ruohoen said. “I came in, started playing for them, and we were winning a lot, whether Danny was in or I was in."

Ruohonen competed in every U.S. Olympic Trials since 2006, but was never able to make it to the Games until now. If he gets in a game with Casper’s team, he would become the oldest American to compete in any Winter Olympics medal event sport.

"I figured I'd get there someday as a coach, maybe," Ruohonen said. "To get there, even if it is as an alternate, is just my dream." 

Sweden

Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson is the winningest Olympic curler of all time, coming into this year’s games with one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals, including one in mixed doubles curling at the 2022 Games.

Swedish skip Niklas Edin played alongside Eriksson for three of those medals, and is competing in his fifth Olympics, tied for the most all time.

Edin and Eriksson’s gold came at the 2022 Games when they defeated Great Britain in the finals. If they were to repeat, they would become the first back-to-back men's gold medalists with the same lineup.

Since the last Olympics, the 40-year-old Edin and company went on to win the 2022 and 2024 world championships, but they are coming off of a somewhat disappointing 5th-place finish at the most recent worlds.

They bounced back to win the 2025 European Championship last fall.

"We have had some really nice years,” Edin said. “Enjoying playing, no pressure at all. We feel now that we can go in and try to defend that title, though we might not be favorites on paper anymore. Other teams have caught up, but we know what we can do. It's going to be a tough battle, but we will try to defend that title and at the same time enjoy the Olympics instead of feeling like the only important thing is winning. It's going to be nice, actually."

Edin and Erikkson will also be joined by Rasmus Wrana, who competed for Sweden in mixed doubles curling in Cortina, and won the gold medal.

Switzerland

This year marks the Olympic debut for Switzerland’s skip, Yannick Schwaller. But he’s already familiar with the ice in Cortina, because the 30-year-old also competed with his wife, Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann, in mixed doubles curling earlier this week. The duo finished tied for 5th place.

On the men’s side, Schwaller’s team finished 2nd at the 2025 world championships and 3rd at worlds in 2023.

The men's tournament will mark the the second time Schwaller competes teamed up with family in Cortina. His brother, Kim, is an alternate on the men's team.

Canada

Canada is the winningest country in Olympic curling history with 12 overall medals, including six on the men’s side.

But, in men’s curling, the country hasn’t won gold since 2014. They’ll look to change that this year with three prior gold medalists taking the ice in Cortina.

The Canadians are led by Brad Jacobs, a 40-year-old who was part of that 2014 team, but hasn’t been back to the Olympics since.

“I knew that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, and I was looking for a bigger challenge,” Jacobs said of returning to the Olympics with this team. “I knew that playing with those guys, I’d be held to a higher standard. I’d be surrounded by guys that really want to do everything possible to grow and learn and improve and win. I also knew a lot of people thought that it would be very challenging to lead a group of men that appear to have quite a lot of testosterone and will to want to win. And a lot of people think that everyone on our team is headstrong, or whatever word you want to use. But I saw the leadership role with this team as the perfect challenge.”

Third Marc Kennedy and lead Ben Hebert both won gold at the 2010 Games, and second Brett Gallant won bronze at the 2022 Games. Gallant also previously competed in Cortina with his wife, Jocelyn Peterman, in the mixed doubles curling competition, finishing tied for fifth place.

Canada won bronze in men’s curling at the 2022 Olympics under skip Brad Gushue.

Jacobs and company finished third at the 2025 world championships.

Italy

Italian skip Joel Retornaz returns for his fourth Olympics. His first was exactly 20 years ago when he and the team finished 7th at the 2006 Torino Games. He competed in the last two Olympics, finishing 9th in both.

While Italy has never won a medal in men’s curling at the Olympics, Retornaz is confident while playing in front of a home crowd. His team finished 3rd at both the 2022 and 2024 world championships, and they are coming off of a 10th-place finish at worlds last year.

“It’s a real medal chance for us this time,” he said. “In previous Games when people ask you what is your goal, you always say ‘I want to medal,’ but deep inside you know you might not have the tools to medal. But this time I think we are a team that can win a medal at the Olympics.”

Italy has some gold medal experience on the team. The third will be Amos Mosaner, part of Italy’s mixed doubles curling team that won gold in 2022 and bronze in Cortina this week.

Germany

The German team is led by Marc Muskatewitz. He and all of his teammates will be making their Olympic debuts.

Muskatewitz’s team won the 2024 European Championships, beating Mouat’s team, but they've struggled in competition in 2025. They finished 10th at last year’s world championships and 5th at the Europeans.

Norway

Also making his Olympic debut will be Norway skip Magnus Ramsfjell, as well as all of his teammates. The 28-year-old and company will look to get Norway back on the Olympic podium for the first time since 2010.

It will be a family team with the Norwegians. Playing second will be Bendik Ramsfjell, Magnus’s cousin.

“We started the team in 2019 and that was after we got the chance to play the University Games,” Magnus said. “We were already in the same city, we all are studying, we might as well give it a shot. And it was really, really fun, and we ended up winning the whole thing. So we just told each other, up, let's go for it. Let's go for the Olympics in the future."

Czechia

For the first time, Czechia will have a team competing in Olympic men’s curling. The team will be led by 34-year-old Lukas Klima, who took them to a 7th-place finish at the 2025 world championships. That was tied for the best ever finish by Czechia in the event.

"This group came together pretty much after the last Olympic cycle, because from the previous team, it was me and Marek, my third, staying and our front ends ... they quit playing curling because of family and other stuff,” Klima said. “So, we tried to find two new guys, and we chose Lukas (Klipa) and Martin (Jurik), who are big strong sweepers, which is huge in today's game. And it gelled really, really well."

China

Xu Xioaming and company earned the final spot in this year’s Olympics at an Olympic Qualifying Event in December.

This is the third Olympic appearance for the 41-year-old Xu, who was part of a team that finished 8th in 2010 and 4th in 2014.

The men’s curling tournament in the Milan Cortina Olympics will kick off at 1:05 p.m. ET on Wednesday with four games:

• Canada vs. German
• China vs. Great Britain
• Czechia vs. United States
• Sweden vs. Italy