13 February 2026
United States of America record historic first Olympic win against Canada at Milano Cortina 2026
The United States of America’s women’s team claimed their own piece of Olympic history in Friday’s third round-robin session when they beat Canada by 9-8 — a first-ever Olympic victory by American women over their Canadian opposition.
After blanking the first end, Canada’s skip Rachel Homan opened the scoring with a draw for two points in the second end.
The Americans responded with a single score in the third – thanks to a draw inside four Canadian stones by skip Tabitha Peterson. They then drew level at 2-2 with a single steal in the fourth, when Homan could not complete a double take-out.
In the fifth end, Homan then took out one of three American stones sitting in the house to score one more point, taking a 3-2 lead into the break.
Good build-up play by the American team in the sixth end gave Peterson the chance to draw for four points and move onto a healthy 6-3 lead. Canada’s Homan responded in the seventh end, scoring two points with a take-out, to reduce the American lead to 6-5.
The Americans moved further ahead with one more point in the eighth, when Peterson took out the only stone in the house, and moved her team onto a 7-5 lead.
In the ninth, Canada’s Homan turned up the heat when she was able to draw for three points and take an 8-7 lead. However, in the tenth, United States of America’s Peterson was able to complete her historic win with a draw to the 8-foot ring for two points and the 9-8 victory.
Afterwards, Peterson was asked about her team’s historic win and said, “We’re quite thrilled! It was a good game; it was a good battle. I know we’ve come close in the past, but it’s a great time to beat the number one team.”
She added, “We performed really well, I think. I mean there was probably a couple of shots that we missed here and there, but the biggest thing was just capitalising on some of their misses, which we did.”
And talking about taking one point in the eighth instead of blanking, she explained, “We were just going off our stats as a team based over the last couple of seasons, and it showed that us scoring in eight leads to winning, so that’s where we went.”
This win ties the United States of America in third place, along with Korea, on two wins, one loss.
Switzerland faced People’s Republic of China in this session. In the fourth end, with the teams tied at 1-1, Switzerland’s fourth player Alina Paetz did not play her last stone for fear of causing scoring damage, to give People’s Republic of China a steal of one and a 2-1 lead.
However, in the fifth, she played a take-out on a Chinese stone to score two points and give Switzerland a 3-2 lead at the break.
China levelled in the sixth but then Paetz drew for three points in the seventh and a 6-3 lead. A further steal by the Swiss in the eighth moved them onto a 7-3 lead and they went on to win by 7-5.
After this second win, Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni said, “I think we played still very good actually, maybe one or two more misses than in the first game, but we also had some tough shots. The ice was much quicker than yesterday, so we had to adjust and get used to that, but overall, I think it was still a great game.
“They are a tough team to play; they take a lot of risks. You could see in the seventh end, maybe it was too much risk but you never know.”
And speaking about the general campaign, she said, “We’ve still got a very long way to go.”
This win keeps Switzerland’s unbeaten record and on two wins they sit second on the table behind Sweden, who have played one game more.
Sweden’s third win came against Denmark in this session. The Danes took the early lead with a steal of two in the second end and the game stayed close throughout. The Swedes scored the only other two of the game in the fourth end — a steal when Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont was short with a draw. This gave Sweden a 3-2 lead.
After this, the teams went into the break level at 3-3 and then swapped singles all the way to the tenth end when a tap-back by Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg gave her team one more point and a 6-5 win.
This third win so far puts Sweden into a clear lead at the top of the table.
The fourth game of the session saw Great Britain face the Republic of Korea. This game was tied at 3-3 at the fifth-end break, but after that Korea scored three in the sixth, stole one in the seventh and stole two more in the eighth, Great Britain conceded with the score at 9-3 to Republic of Korea.
Great Britain sit bottom of the table along with Italy and Japan, who are all still looking for their first win.
Follow the live scores from the women’s team curling at Milano Cortina 2026 here.
Find the full women’s team curling schedule and results here.
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