20 February 2026
Great Britain and Canada to play for gold at Olympic Winter Games
Great Britain men will play Canada in Saturday evening’s gold medal final after they both won their semi-final games on Thursday evening.
Great Britain faced Switzerland, who came into this game unbeaten so far, including an extra end win over the British quartet earlier in the week.
As table-toppers, Switzerland started with last stone advantage, and blanked the first end. They then used that advantage to score two points in the second end, thanks to a draw by their fourth player Benoit Schwarz-Van Berkel. But Great Britain responded in the third when skip Bruce Mouat scored two with a nose-hit, to level the score at 2-2.
In the fourth end, Great Britain had cleared the house with their last stone, but Schwarz-Van Berkel played a delicate split on one of his own stones lying just short of the house, and nudged that stone and his shooter into position to score two points, for a 4-2 lead.
Great Britain were looking for two in the fifth end to level the game again, but Mouat’s last stone caught another on the way in, and he had to settle for just one point, giving Switzerland a 4-3 lead at the break.
However, Great Britain did manage to get back level in the sixth when Schwarz-Van Berkel feathered the counting British stone with his take-out attempt, to give up a steal of one, for 4-4.
There were plenty of stones in play in the seventh end, but Mouat played a brave run-back shot to clear three Swiss stones and eventually force Switzerland to draw for just one point, instead of the multiple score they were looking for.
In the eighth end, Mouat had a draw for two points and this gave Great Britain the lead — 6-5 — for the first time in the game. With the Swiss looking again for a multiple score, good play by Great Britain forced Switzerland to blank the ninth, instead of taking one from the end.
In the tenth, Schwarz-Van Berkel was forced to attempt an in-off off one of his own stones sitting on the wing. He got the angle wrong and took out his own stone rather than a British one. This gave Great Britain a steal of two from the end, for a final score of 8-5 and a place in the gold medal final.
After the game, a delighted Mouat said, “Happy is the top emotion at the minute. The boys and I stuck together really well in that game. We weren’t having our best in the first five ends and then really flipped it around in the last five, so I’m just really proud of us for sticking together, supporting each other, and believing in each other.”
Asked about when he felt he had control of the game he said, “I think the tide almost turned in the sixth end after we got the steal and in the seventh end after that big shot, it just kind of gave us the belief that we could go and do this.”
Thinking about reaching his second Olympic final, he said, “We’re always going to have to battle at an Olympics, we know that. We had to do it last time but we played really well consistently last time and this time it has been a wee bit up and down. But we play well when it matters, that’s the belief we have in this team. We’ve done it at world championships, we’ve done it at numerous competitions throughout our career, so I’m very proud of how we’ve dealt with all that pressure.”
And when asked how he will turn silver last time into gold this time, he said, “We come out and play like those last five ends.”
Canada faced Norway in the other semi-final and, with three blank ends in total, and no more than one point in any of the regulation ends until the tenth, this was a quieter affair, which eventually went to an extra end.
Canada started with last stone advantage, and blanked the first end. They then scored one in the second end when three Norwegian stones in the house forced Canada skip Brad Jacobs to draw, rather than blank again.
In the third end, Norway skip Magnus Ramsfjell feathered a guard with his last stone, to give up a steal of one, extending Canada’s lead to 2-0.
Norway’s Ramsfjell was facing three Canadian stones when he drew his last of the fourth end for one. Canada then blanked again in the fifth to go into the break holding a 2-1 lead.
Jacobs drew for one in the sixth, and then Ramsfjell blanked the seventh before tapping out a Canada stone in the eighth, to score one point and reduce the Canadian lead to 3-2. In the ninth, Canada’s Jacobs played a double take-out to score one more for a 4-2 lead, but Ramsfjell was able to score two in the tenth to level the game and force an extra end.
Canada had hammer in that end and eventually used it to give Jacobs a draw for one and a 5-4 win.
After the game, Canada’s Jacobs said, “I’m feeling really great. I’m feeling really proud of my teammates, and I’m really grateful for this opportunity.
He continued, “Norway were tough, they were tough all day. Magnus made a ton of great shots starting in that first game. Those guys were virtually lights out, they gave us everything we could handle, I was just grateful we had hammer in that game and got off to a good start and that we were able to manage the scoreboard because they were not going away easy. They played awesome. I’m just happy to be able to get through them in that semi-final, it was tough.”
Canada will now face Great Britain for gold medals on Saturday evening at 19.05, and before that Switzerland will play Norway for bronze on Friday evening, also at 19.05.
Find the medal games brackets here.
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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