Both Great Britain’s Team Mouat and Canada’s Team Jacobs know what it’s like to play in the men’s curling gold medal game at the Olympics, but only one knows what it’s like to win it.

Great Britain reached the Olympic final with an 8-5 win over Switzerland in the semifinals on Saturday, and will now play in their second straight gold medal match. They lost to Sweden in the 2022 finale, taking home silver.

“It feels very good. Nice to be back there,” skip Bruce Mouat said following the semifinals win. “We’re going to do one better this time, hopefully. We’ve put in a lot of work to get to this point, so I’m very proud of the guys and very excited for Saturday.”

Great Britain has won just one men's curling Olympic gold medal, the first time curling was played at the Olympics back in 1924.

Canada defeated Norway, 5-4, in an 11-end semifinal, guaranteeing the country a first Olympic men’s curling gold or silver medal since 2014.

Skip Brad Jacobs is playing in his second Olympics. His first was in 2014 when he skipped the Canadians to a gold medal.

He said just getting back to the finale was a relief.

“I think that actually takes a little bit of pressure off now getting through the semis and getting to the gold medal game, being guaranteed a medal,” Jacobs said. “But make no mistake, we want to get the gold.

“We’re ready. This is the challenge that we’ve wanted since I came on this team. What an opportunity. … We’re grateful to be in this situation.”

Great Britain was the favorite coming into Cortina, and was ranked No. 1 in the world thanks in part to a win at the 2025 World Championships.

But Mouat’s team struggled a bit in round-robin play, going 5-4. They were the last team into the semifinals.

One of those round-robin losses came to Canada.

"That wasn't our best stuff, and we've actually got a pretty good record against them overall,” Great Britain’s Bobby Lammie said of Canada.

"We play well when it matters, that's the belief that we have in this team,” Mouat said. “We've done it at world championships, we've done it at numerous competitions throughout our careers, so very proud of how we've dealt with all that pressure."

Canada went 7-2 in round-robin play, their only losses coming to Switzerland and Norway, the two teams that lost the other semifinals and played in the bronze medal match.

Players from both Great Britain and Canada acknowledged the amount of times they’ve faced one another in previous tournaments, and they know they have a formidable opponent on the other side of the ice.

“They’re a great team,” said Canada’s Brett Gallant. “They’ve been the No. 1 team in the world for a while now. We just know that makes it easy for us. We know we’ve got to play great, we’ve got to play our game and do everything we can to do our best. But we know if we do all those things, if we show up, then we’re going to give them everything they can handle.”

“It will be a very good game,” Mouat said. “They’ve obviously got a lot of experience. Most of them have been in the gold medal game before. We’ve played them millions and millions of times it feels like, so it’ll be a good game and I’m excited to play against them in the Olympic final.”

When it comes to the key for preparing for Saturday’s final, both teams had the same answer: sleep.

"It's a day of rest for us, which is nice,” Lammie said. “Let the bodies rest because we had to work so hard for that one. We'll be feeling that a bit tomorrow. … Rest up, get plenty of food, and just excited to curl an Olympic final. Saying you've been in two now is a pretty cool feeling."

“Lots of rest,” Jacobs said. “I think one of keys to coming out and playing like we did tonight and getting that win was actually the rest we had in between games. And now we’ve got quite a long stretch off. … So lots of rest, fuel up, and figure out what we’ve got to do in order to be great in one more game here.”

The men’s curling gold medal match between Great Britain and Canada will begin at 1:05 p.m. ET on Saturday. It will stream live on Peacock and NBCOlympics.com.