20 February 2026
Switzerland win bronze at Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games
Switzerland won the men’s Olympic bronze medals when they beat Norway by 9-1 in Friday evening’s bronze medal game.
The Swiss started with last stone advantage and blanked the first end. Then in the second, their fourth player Benoit Schwarz-Van Berkel played a take-out of a Norwegian stone to open the scoring with three points.
In the third, Norway’s skip Magnus Ramsfjell made a double take-out attempt but left one Swiss stone in position, to give Switzerland a single steal and a 4-0 lead.
Ramsfjell blanked the fourth end and then, in the fifth, Ramsfjell was facing four Swiss counters when he played a hit and stay to score one point, reducing the Swiss lead to 4-1 at the break.
Switzerland blanked the sixth end and, after Schwarz-Van Berkel cleared out four stones as well as his shooter with his first shot, they blanked the seventh end too, to keep their lead at 4-1.
The Swiss scored again in the eighth end, when Schwarz-Van Berkel played a straight raise take-out for two points and a 6-1 lead.
In the ninth end, Switzerland had three stones counting in the house when Norway’s Ramsfjell came to play his last stone. With the eventual result now beyond his team, Ramsfjell produced a crowd-pleasing 360 degree ‘spin-o-rama’ delivery, to send his last stone on its way.
In the spirit of the end, his team then deliberately ‘burned’ their stone so that it would not count. This gave the Swiss a three-point steal for a final winning score of 9-1.
After his bronze medal achievement, a pleased but subdued Yannick Schwaller said, “I’m thinking a lot right now. I’m just so happy that we got that medal now. We had a truly special week, it’s been amazing, it was such a great performance and if we didn’t get a medal then that would have been tough.
“Also, it’s been four years working with that group, including the coaches, and we worked for that. To top that project off with a medal is a gratitude to everyone, I guess.”
Reflecting on the semi-final loss that relegated his team to the bronze game, he added, “Yesterday [the gold medal final] was so near, millimetres. That will still sting a bit for the next couple of days and weeks, but I said it at the beginning of the week, I just wanted the team to perform to the highest of abilities and that’s what we did — and again today as well — so I’m very pleased that this goal came true.”
The bronze medal-winning Switzerland team are: Benoit Schwarz-Van Berkel (fourth), Yannick Schwaller (skip and third), Sven Michel (second), Pablo Lachat-Couchepin (lead), Kim Schwaller (alternate); supported by Havard Vad Petersson (coach) and Glenn Howard (national coach).
The men’s gold medal game between Great Britain and Canada will take place on Saturday 21 February at 19.05.
Find the full men’s team curling schedule and all results here.
All times are Central European Time (CET) which is Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) +1.
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