22 February 2026
Sweden become two-time Olympic Champions
In a close women’s gold medal final on Sunday, Sweden’s skip Anna Hasselborg played a hit and stay with her last stone of the tenth end to seal her team’s 6-5 victory over Switzerland and their second Olympic title.
Sweden started the final with last stone advantage and opened the scoring with two points when their skip Anna Hasselborg played a hit and stay on a Swiss stone.
Switzerland, looking for a multiple score, then blanked the next two ends.
In the fourth, Switzerland had the scoring shot in the house when Sweden’s Hasselborg drew her last stone to freeze onto it. Switzerland’s fourth player Alina Paetz then had a chance to draw for two points, but her final effort was too heavy, meaning that the Swiss had to settle for just one point from the end, reducing the Swedish lead to 2-1.
Sweden built up the fifth end, but Switzerland’s Paetz then cleared out the Swedish counting stone with her last. Sweden’s Hasselborg was then facing three Swiss stones and was forced to draw for one point and a 3-1 lead at the break.
The sixth end produced a busy house, but Switzerland’s Paetz was able to steer a path through front guards with her final draw to bring her stone into the four-foot ring and score two points, levelling the game to 3-3.
In the seventh end, when Sweden’s skip Hasselborg came to play her final stone, she was facing two Swiss counters. This meant she was forced to hit and stay for one point and a 4-3 lead.
In the eighth end, Sweden’s Hasselborg drew her second stone into position to lie two. This left Switzerland’s Paetz with a raise double take-out opportunity, but instead of clearing her second target, it stayed in the house, to give Sweden a steal of one point and a 5-3 lead.
Paetz then made up for that mistake when, in the ninth end, she produced a hit and stay at the back of the house, to score two points and level the game to 5-5.
In the tenth end, Switzerland tried to build, but every time they succeeded, Sweden cleared. With the last stone of the end, Hasselborg hit out the Swiss stone that was lying shot, keeping her own in play, to score one for a 6-5 scoreline and Olympic gold.
This is a second Olympic gold medal for this Swedish team, who last won at the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic Winter Games. They also took bronze in Beijing 2022.
Sweden skip Anna Hasselborg reflected on the game, “Starting with the hammer was huge, we knew they would throw a lot of offensive [shots] at us but we wanted to go hard and we got that two in the first. It was such a tight game but coming home with hammer in the tenth was everything we dreamt of.
And about her win, she said, “I’m just lost for words but if there were some words: proud, almost amazed because before the Europeans, it felt like we were peaking at the right time and that was true. If you make a plan and everything comes together, it’s everything you can ask for.
“I’m so proud of the journey we’ve been on and how much we’ve pushed the level of play, we’ve been going in more aggressive than we’ve ever been but we also have the players to do it. The girls have played unreal this week and it has just been such a privilege to be standing in the house and calling the shots for them.”
Following the game, Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni said, “They just told me I’m the oldest medallist in the winter sports, so I don’t know how I feel about that but I feel good. It’s been a battle to this point, we didn’t win gold but it would be bad if I wasn’t happy about this silver medal.
“We did so well this whole year actually, not just this week. Curling is not an easy sport and you have to prove it on the ice and we did it again, so happy about silver.”
The gold medal winning Sweden team was Anna Hasselborg (skip), Sara McManus (third), Agnes Knochenhauer (second), Sofia Scharback (lead), Johanna Heldin (alternate), supported by Kristian Heldin Lindstrom (coach) and Fredrik Lindberg (national coach).
The silver medal winning Switzerland team was Alina Paetz (fourth), Silvana Tirinzoni (skip and third), Carole Howald (second), Selina Witschonke (lead), Stefanie Berset (alternate), supported by Pierre Charette (coach) and Mirjam Ott (national coach).
Find all results from the women’s team competition at Milano Cortina 2026 here.
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