For the first time in Olympic history, an American woman left the Games with a curling medal.
Team USA’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin won silver in mixed doubles curling, going through round-robin play 6-3 to earn the No. 3 seed in the semifinals. Just doing that was historic, as no American mixed doubles team had ever made the final four at the Olympics, but the two weren’t done. They then took down Italy, the defending gold medalists, to advance to the gold medal game. It took a comeback win in the 10th for Sweden to defeat the Americans in the final.
“We had just an incredible week of curling and there was so many great teams there,” Thiesse said. “Any of those teams could have been on the podium at the end of the week. We just knew that we wanted to go out there and just enjoy ourselves, have fun, put together some good curling shots, and just focus on the process, trust all the work that we had put in, and kind of see what happens at the end of the week.
“And to be finishing on the podium is just incredible, and it's just a huge, huge thing for USA curling, for our sport back home. We know that a lot of people got really invested in mixed double curling and it's just really, really cool because we love showcasing our sport and showing people how fun it is.”
Elsewhere on the curling ice, more history was made, records were broken, and there was a little bit of controversy.
There were so many great teams and moments that defined curling at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Let’s relive it all here.
Curling Medalists at the 2026 Winter Olympics
| Mixed Doubles | Men's | Women's |
| 🥇 Sweden | 🥇 Canada | 🥇 Sweden |
| 🥈 United States | 🥈 Great Britain | 🥈 Switzerland |
| 🥉 Italy | 🥉 Switzerland | 🥉 Canada |
Dropkin and Thiesse make history
The American duo scored two points in the final end of the mixed doubles semifinals to secure a comeback victory over Italy and a spot in the gold medal match. The win meant it would be the first time a U.S. team took home an Olympic medal in mixed doubles curling, and Thiesse would become the first American woman to win an Olympic curling medal.
“I mean, those are the reigning Olympic champions and the reigning world champs,” Dropkin said. “So that's a great team, and it took everything. We were gritty. It was an awesome atmosphere out there. The Italian crowd, the U.S. crowd, and everyone just blasting this venue with cheers. We loved it. We ate it all up. It was wonderful."
Even though the Americans didn’t win their last game, just getting to the Olympic final was ultimately more than they ever could have imagined in their wildest dreams.
“I'm still pretty speechless,” Thiesse said. “When Korey and I were walking out there I said, ‘Can you imagine at the beginning of the year if we said we were going to be silver medalist at the Olympic Games this year, we'd be pretty happy with that.’”
Sweden wins mixed doubles gold, Italy wins bronze on home ice
Isabella and Rasmus Wrana defeated Team USA's Dropkin and Thiesse for their first mixed doubles Olympic gold medal. They became the first brother-sister duo to win an Olympic gold medal on the same team.
“It was a great game. Two really good teams, very back and forth,” Thiesse said. “We just needed to be a little bit sharper than we were today, but we're not going to let that game take away from the week that we had. We're so proud of the way that we played this week and battled in that last game. They're a great team and props to them. We're very excited to be walking away with the silver medal, for sure.”
The Italian duo of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner came to their home Olympics as the standout favorites in the mixed doubles curling competition, having run through both the 2022 Olympics and 2025 World Championships undefeated.
While Team Italy wasn't quite as successful in Cortina, losing two games in round-robin play and a third match in the semifinals, they left with a victory and another medal.
With a one-point lead going into the eighth end of the bronze medal match, Constantini and Mosaner avoided a steal attempt by Great Britain and held for one to secure a 5-3 victory over Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat in the bronze medal match.
Canada, Sweden face off on the ice… in more ways than one
It was the “boop” heard ’round the world.
Between the second and third ends of an early round-robin men’s curling match between Canada and Sweden, Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson was shown on the NBC broadcast telling an official he believed a Canadian player was double-touching the stone on throws. Video from the match appeared to prove on at least one early throw Marc Kennedy had released the stone, then nudged it forward slightly with his index finger. The move prompted Sweden to bring it to the attention of officials.
What ensued was a tense shouting match between the two teams — with a good number of expletives in between.
“I thought it wasn’t OK. Touching the rock after the hog line?” Eriksson could be heard saying.
“Who’s doing it? Who?” Kennedy said angrily in response from the opposite side of the ice.
Eriksson pointed at him.
“I haven’t done it once. You can f— off,” Kennedy said.
The teams eventually went back to finish the match, and Canada ended up scoring one in the 10th for an 8-1 win.
But that didn’t stop likely the biggest curling controversy in Olympic history from exploding. World Curling released several statement reiterating rules and saying they would watch throws more closely, and two other players — Canada’s Rachel Homan and Great Britain’s Bobby Lammie — were also called for illegal throws in the coming days.
The controversy eventually died down, and all three of Kennedy, Homan, and Lammie left Cortina with medals.
Rich Ruohonen makes Team USA history
After seven ends of play during the U.S. men's curling team's round-robin game against Switzerland, the Americans made a substitution, putting in alternate Rich Ruohonen for lead Aidan Oldenburg.
By entering the match, the 54-year-old Ruohonen became the oldest American ever to compete in a Winter Olympic medal event.
Ruohonen broke a previous record held by Joseph Savage, who was 52 when he competed in figure skating at the 1932 Olympics in Los Angeles, when figure skating was a summer sport.
"I think it was," Ruohonen said when asked if getting into the match was the best day of his life.
Ruohonen took the ice when the team was down 8-2 in the eighth. He threw the first and second stones for Team USA in the end.
"To go in and make both was great. It was awesome," he said of making his throws. "The crowd was cheering me on and the [Swiss] Schwaller team were so great about it. Normally in our game we shake hands if it's out of reach and I just told them, 'Hey guys, we're just going to get this out of way, do you mind if I play a couple rocks and we play one more end?' and they said, 'Great, you deserve it. Get in there.'
"It meant a lot, and I think a lot of people in the crowd knew it and it was great."
The lawyer from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, had been competing at the U.S. Olympic Trials every year since 2006 before skip Danny Casper chose him as an alternate for this year's team. He's a two-time U.S. national champion and six-time U.S. silver medalist.
He's been playing with Team Casper for about four years, skipping for the team when Casper was unable to make it to games.
The U.S. men's curling team would go on to finish fifth after going 4-5 in round-robin play and narrowly missing the semifinals.
Team USA women reach semifinals in final game, finish 4th
The U.S. has sent a women's curling team to compete in every Olympics that has held a women's curling competition. This year, for just the second time, the Americans reached the tournament semifinals.
The U.S. women's curling team clinched a spot in the final four with a 7-6 extra-ends victory over Switzerland in the final session of round-robin play.
It took an extra end and a clutch throw to win it.
The U.S. had hammer in the 11th, but Switzerland had done a great job to keep the button guarded. On the final rock, Tabitha Peterson stepped to the hack and threw down the left side of the ice. The rock took 24 seconds to come down the ice as Taylor Anderson-Heide and Tara Peterson swept with all their might to keep it going. It floated just behind the two Swiss stones sitting at the top of the four-foot and finally stopped at the back, just inches closer to the button for the huge point — and the win.
The U.S. players embraced in a hug to celebrate the United States' first trip to the Olympic semifinals since 2002.
The two teams met again in the semifinals, and Switzerland got it back on Team USA. Alina Patz shot 100 percent on draw shots, 98 percent on takeouts, and 99 percent on game shots, and her near-perfect play was too good for Team USA to overcome.
Patz led her team to a 7-4 victory over the U.S. to advance to the gold medal game and force the U.S. to play for bronze.
Canada wins showdown in men’s gold medal game; Great Britain wins second silver, and Switzerland takes bronze
Bruce Mouat and Brad Jacobs are considered two of the best skips in the world, and they played a match for the ages in the men's curling gold medal final. Jacobs led Canada to a 9-6 win over Great Britain for the country's first men's curling Olympic gold medal since 2014.
In the 10th end of the gold medal game at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, the prowess of the skips was on full display. On his first throw, Mouat faced two Canadian stones, one biting the button and one on the right side of the four-foot. He eliminated both, leaving his team sitting two while trailing, 8-6.
Jacobs matched him, coming up with his own double as his teammates swept with everything they had to force the second Team GB stone out of the house so they wouldn’t have a chance at lying three.
Mouat only had one choice with his hammer — Canada had two stones sitting in a line at the top of the 12-foot, and Mouat had to take out both. He sent a stone down the ice that was on a perfect line, but didn’t hit right. It was hard enough to force out the first rock, but the second sat still, giving the Canadians a steal of one, and more importantly the win.
"Disappointment is probably the first one but, yeah, just trying to find the pride in everything we did this week to get us to this point," Mouat said. "It wasn't an easy week. We had to battle very hard. Just very proud of having something to take home and hopefully inspire other people to take up curling."
"It’s really a dream come true," said Team Canada's Brett Gallant. "We might never have accomplished it without those three guys and their experience. This is probably the most difficult competition to win, and we relied on each other through all the challenges. The opponent we had today, they’re the best team in the world, and we knew it would take everything we had and probably a few breaks to win that game. But it’s the team, it’s those three guys who have done it before and guided me through it. I was just trying to support them, too. So it’s really the team that got us this far and got us to the podium."
In the bronze medal game, after going through round-robin play undefeated and dropping their first game in the semifinals, Switzerland’s men’s curling team put a bow on their Olympics by defeating Norway, 9-1.
With the bronze, Switzerland earned the country's first Olympic men's curling medal since 2018 and fifth of all time.
"First of all, it's amazing," said Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller. "Coming out with a medal after the last four years, it was such a good project. Three awesome guys that became friends, and the coaches as well. To have that end goal of going to the Olympics and to win a medal here feels fantastic. Of course, there are mixed feelings because we were that good so we could have won that semifinal, too, but I'm so proud and happy."
Switzerland's only loss of the tournament was in the semifinals, an 8-5 defeat at the hands of Great Britain, who advanced to the gold medal game.
Norway was looking for its first Olympic curling medal since 2010. Even though they left in 4th place, the Norwegians are hopeful they made a statement during their time in Cortina.
"The news guys asked us beforehand, 'So what's your thing? What's the thing we should focus on? What's, like, the gimmick or how do we recognize you?'" Ramsfjell said. "And I just said, I think you will see the four guys out on the ice who will have fun, and hopefully we’ll spread that to everyone who watches, and I believe we have accomplished that. And I feel like most people who watch the games back will have had a good time and I really hope that people enjoyed it."
Sweden wins fourth women’s gold, Switzerland takes third silver
For the second time in their careers, Anna Hasselborg and her women's curling team are Olympic gold medalists.
With a 6-5 victory over Switzerland on the final day of the Milan Cortina Games, Hasselborg's squad brought Sweden it's fourth Olympic title, and second in the last three Games. Sweden has now had a women's curling team leave with a medal in six straight Olympics.
"I think it will probably take some time for this to sink in,” said Sweden’s Agnes Knochenhauer. “We’ve been working for this for a long time, and we’ve had many ups and downs along the way and sometimes a hard time believing it’s possible. Coming into this Olympics we felt like we had done all the work that we needed to do and I’m super proud. I think it’s going to take some time for this sink in, but I’m super proud of us.”
Knochenhauer has played in four Olympics, and won a medal in each one.
The silver was the first Olympic medal for Tirinzoni, a 46-year-old playing in her third Olympics. It's also Switzerland's first women's curling medal since 2006. The country has won three medals in women's curling, all silver.
"It was amazing. You know, that's really a dream come true," Tirinzoni said. "It's maybe not quite the absolutely correct color, but it's pretty nice, so I love it... It's been a battle. I'm disappointed we didn't win gold, but it would be so bad if I was not happy about this silver medal.
"Curling is not an easy sport. Even if we have the potential and the abilities, we also have to prove it on the ice. And we did again."
Sweden's mixed doubles team of Isabella Wrana and Rasmus Wrana also won gold in Cortina. Sweden now has 12 Olympic curling medals, one behind Canada for the most of any country. Canada also left the Milan Cortina Games with two medals — gold in men's curling and silver in women's.