19 February 2026
Norway and Great Britain complete men’s semi-finals roster at Olympic Winter Games
In a compelling twelfth and last men’s round-robin session on Thursday morning, the two games that determined the semi-final line-up saw Norway beat Canada — with both teams qualifying — and Switzerland beating Italy, meaning that Switzerland now qualify in top place while Italy fell to sixth place.
This then opened the door for Great Britain, who were not scheduled to play in this session, but are now through to the semi-finals in fourth place.
Norway started strong in their game against Canada, scoring three in the first end when their skip Magnus Ramsfjell played a raise take-out with his last stone.
Canada responded with just a single point in the second end, when their skip Brad Jacobs drew his last stone just inside two Norwegians stones already in the house. Norway then moved even further ahead in the third end when Ramsfjell played a draw for two and a 5-1 lead.
Responding in the fourth end, Canada’s Jacobs played a take-out, but for only one point again, to reduce the Norwegian lead to 5-2. However, in the fifth, a double take-out by Ramsfjell gave Norway two more points and a 7-2 lead at the break.
Brad Jacobs brought his Canadian team right back into the game in the sixth end when he played a gentle tap-back off the button to score three points and reduce the Norwegian lead to 7-5.
In the seventh end, Norway attempted to blank but their double take-out did not clear out a second Canadian stone, giving Canada a steal of one that brought them to just 7-6 down.
In the eighth end, Norway had a chance to score two points, but, on their take-out attempt, their shooter rolled out and they had to settle for one point and an 8-6 lead.
Canada’s Jacobs cleared out the sole Norway stone in the house to blank the ninth end, but the Canadians then ran out of stones in the tenth, giving Norway their 8-6 win without Ramsfjell having to play his last stone.
With the round-robin now completed, Canada rank second and Norway third, and these two teams will meet again in the semi-finals.
After this win that sealed his semi-final place, Norway’s skip Magnus Ramsfjell said, “I don’t think it’s quite set in yet. It’s something we’ve worked on for quite a while. It’s the Olympics we set our eyes on when we formed the team six years ago, so yeah, it feels incredible.”
Looking forward to the semis while reflecting on his round-robin win, he added, “Canada’s always fun to beat, and when you do it in the round robin, surely you can do it in the play-offs, right?”
Looking back at the game, he said, “We started out quite well in this game. We had a couple points, then they missed a couple, and then the last five ends, they just played incredible. So that team that just played the last five ends is definitely going to show up, if not an even tougher one, so we’ve got to improve some of our things as well, and just work on what worked well and nip out some of the mistakes.”
He also said, “We’re having so much fun out there and I think we’ve just got to make sure the nerves don’t get the better of us, try to remain calm and have fun — that’s when we play the best and hopefully, we can pull it off.”
In the other game affecting the semi-final line-up, Switzerland — unbeaten so far — faced hosts Italy.
The Swiss started with last stone advantage and used it to score two points in the opening end when their fourth player Benoit Schwarz-Van Berkel drew a second stone into a scoring position.
Italy blanked the second end, then gave up a steal of one in the third when their skip Joel Retornaz could not remove a Swiss stone with a double take-out attempt. The Italians then put a single point on the scoreboard in the fourth end when Retornaz cleared out a Swiss counter.
This reduced the Swiss lead to 3-1, but a single point in the fifth, when Schwarz-Van Berkel played a hit and stay, gave Switzerland a 4-1 lead at the break.
In the sixth end, good early play by his team allowed Italy’s Retornaz to score two points with a take-out, to reduce the Swiss lead to 4-3.
However, in the seventh, with four Swiss stones sitting across the house, Switzerland’s Schwarz-Van Berkel was able to take out the sole Italian stone sitting there, to score three points and improve his team’s lead to 7-3.
Italy responded with two points in the eighth — through a Retornaz draw — for 7-5, but in the ninth, Schwarz-Van Berkel played a take-out to score two more points that moved the Swiss lead on to 9-5.
Italy then conceded, to bring their Olympic campaign to an end. They finished in sixth, on four wins and five losses. Great Britain — with a better won five and lost four record — therefore took up the fourth and last semi-final slot.
They will now face table-toppers Switzerland in a re-run of the 2025 World Men’s Championship final.
After his team’s unbeaten round-robin performance, Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller said, “It’s cool that we’ve got a 100% record through the round robin. It’s what we worked for, but we don’t care about the standings results. We tried to be performance-oriented and I think we’ve done very good. We had a great performance in all games, never really had a bad one out there. Maybe the last two were a bit less sharp but still very good, on a good level and we’re just trying to continue that performance.”
Finishing first in the round-robin gives Switzerland the vital last stone advantage throughout the play-offs and about that Schwaller said, “Of course having hammer all the way through is important. We’ve been able to run away with the games and maybe now in the last four or five, we’ve always scored two in the beginning.”
More generally, he added, “I’m just happy with whatever we do right now, it’s a lot of enjoyment. Even though the opponent is there with a pressure situation, we have strong body language and try to counter with Benoit or in the next end with the deuce or whatever, so we don’t want to be tough on ourselves if it goes wrong, we have a lot of confidence.”
In the other two games of this session, Germany beat People’s Republic of China by 6-4 to place seventh, while, on two wins, People’s Republic of China place tenth.
In the fourth game of the session, Czechia beat Sweden by 10-4, to finish eighth and Sweden in ninth.
Find the men’s play-offs bracket here.
Find the final round robin standings here.
Find the full men’s team curling schedule and results here.
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