14 February 2026
Defending Olympic Champs Sweden win first game at Milano Cortina 2026
Reigning Olympic champions Sweden finally secured their first victory of their Milano Cortina 2026 campaign in this afternoon’s men’s fifth round-robin session when they beat People’s Republic of China
Sweden started their game against People’s Republic of China with hammer, and skip Niklas Edin used it to his advantage by playing a precise draw for two points.
People’s Republic of China got their first point on the board when skip Xu Xiaoming played a draw to the button for a single point.
After a blanked third end, another point came for Sweden through a draw by skip Edin.
People’s Republic of China played a nose hit on a lying Swedish stone for one before the teams went into the fifth end break, and the score sat at 3-2.
A blanked sixth end was followed by another point for Sweden, when skip Niklas Edin drew his final stone into the pocket amongst three lying Chinese stones.
Another draw for People’s Republic of China brought the score to 4-3 in the eighth and then, in the ninth end, Sweden were lying four when Xu attempted to draw his final stone. However, he was too heavy, still leaving one Swedish shot stone. Edin then used his final stone to draw for two points.
In the final end, People’s Republic of China could only score one, and conceded, handing Sweden a 6-4 win and their first win of the competition.
Following the game, Sweden’s third Oskar Eriksson said, “It felt good coming in today, we knew we had to win.
“We played great as a team so happy with the win.”
United States of America had a dream start to their game against Germany when, after setting up three counters, Daniel Casper played a hit and stay on a single German counter to score four points.
In the second end, Casper made a promotion take-out with his final stone, taking out a German counter, forcing Germany into a draw for a single point. However in the third, Casper’s attempt to draw to the button was too heavy, letting Germany steal one.
End four saw United States of America lying two when German skip Marc Muskatewitz came to play his final stone. He attempted a run back double to remove the two American counters which was successful, but his shooter also rolled away. This allowed Casper to play a hit-and-stay and score two more points.
By the fifth end break, United States of America were 6-3 leaders and going into the sixth end with hammer. Muskatewitz played a promotion take-out to send four American counters flying, leaving Casper to draw for one. His draw wasn’t strong enough, and despite excellent sweeping, Germany stole one.
United States of America were still 7-6 ahead going into the ninth end, in which Casper played a double take-out to remove the German counters and score one.
Eventually in the final end, the Germans ran out of stones, conceded and United States of America won 8-6.
After their game, Danny Casper said, “It’s good to get that win after a couple losses. It can be easy to snowball a little bit in any sport or any event, but we knew we were playing amazing teams, those two in particular have been here and doing that for a long time, so we were glad to get back to it again today.
Reflecting on their score of four in the first end, he said, “We were feeling great. They just had a couple misses and we played a good first end and you don’t really have room for a couple misses at this event. The crowd was going crazy too which is always fun, and their crowd responded when they played well.
“Playing defence for nine ends is not the easiest thing to do sometimes, but we felt good that we were able to carry the momentum.”
This result now means these two teams sit joint sixth place on the table.
Great Britain faced Czechia in this session, and by the fifth end break, the Brits had built up a solid 5-2 lead. Czechia scored their only two in the eighth end when skip Lukas Klima drew his final stone into the house. In the tenth end Great Britain ran Czechia out of stones and they conceded, giving the Brits their third win at 7-4.
The final game of this session saw Switzerland face Canada. Switzerland controlled the first half, going into the fifth end break with a 6-3 lead. Going into the ninth end, Switzerland still had an 8-6 lead, and then scored another single. Canada conceded in the tenth end and Switzerland won 9-5.
Switzerland now sit alone atop the men’s rankings on a 4-0 winning record, with Great Britain and Canada behind in second with three wins and one loss. People’s Republic of China and Czechia are still looking for their first wins.
Follow the live scores from the men’s team curling at Milano Cortina 2026 here.
Find the full men’s team curling schedule and results here.
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