Team China celebrate their play-off qualification © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

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World Curling Media

11 March 2026

Two semi-final spots taken at Paralympic Winter Games’ mixed team event

On Wednesday, two mixed team round-robin sessions took place at the Paralympic Winter Games.

Before the morning session, no team has qualified for the play-offs, while by the end of the day, People’s Republic of China and Canada secured their semi-final spot.

Canada didn’t play in the morning, but knew that they could qualify for the play-offs if Slovakia lost against Sweden.

In that game, Sweden showed strong form, and after single steals in the first four ends, they were leading 4-0.

After seven, Sweden were leading 5-2. Slovakia had hammer in the last end, and Adrian Durcek needed to execute a perfect tap to score four and win the game. He almost managed to do that, but he didn’t push the Swedish target stone far enough. Slovakia only scored two and Sweden won, 5-4.

Sweden’s Kristina Ulander celebrates their morning win © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

This Swedish win earned Canada a semi-final spot.

Reigning Paralympic champions, People’s Republic of China, met Great Britain in the morning, knowing, that a victory and some other results going their way would earn them a spot in the semi-finals. Team China started with a score of three, and were leading, 3-2, after two.

In the third end, however, Wang Haitao missed both of his promotion take-out attempts, and Great Britain stole a single. In the fourth, Team China scored a single for a 4-3 lead at the break.

In the second half, Team China kept putting the pressure on Great Britain. After a score of two in the sixth, they stole three in the seventh. At this point, Great Britain conceded the game, 9-4. After the session, Team China‘s semi-final qualification was confirmed.

Team China celebrate a shot © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

Republic of Korea had a won four, lost two record before heading into their only game of the day against United States of America. Team Korea stole a single in the first end, when Sean O’Neill’s double take-out didn’t work out. Then, he made up for this mistake, and after two excellent draws by him, Team United States put three on the board, 3-1.

The Americans kept their momentum and after a big steal of three in the fourth, they were leading 7-1. After trading single points, Team United States stole a single following a missed promotion take-out by Nam Bong Kwang in the seventh. With a 9-2 American lead after seven, Team Korea conceded the game.

Team United States versus Team Korea © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

Afterwards, Team United States’ lead, Oyuna Uranchimeg said, “We were hungry after the two losses, we really needed this win to hopefully get to the semi-finals. So we came in prepared mentally and we actually came out strong. The goal for the team was to start strong, stay strong and keep strong all the way. So I think we accomplished that and everybody performed well. We were firing on all cylinders. It was great!”

Elsewhere in the morning, 2024 world champions Norway attempted to pick up a second win of the week when they met Latvia. Norway were leading, 3-1, after four ends. In the sixth, Latvia had a chance to put four on the board, but Sergejs Djacenko was heavy with his last draw and Latvia needed to settle for three to tie the game, 4-4. After forcing Latvia to a single in the seventh, Norway scored two in the eighth for a 6-5 win.

Afterwards, an all-smiles Mia Larsen Sveberg said, “Finally, we found the feeling that I got at the last worlds and the last Paralympics. So it’s really good to finally get that feeling again. Maybe the mindset has changed a little bit, because when we got into the Paralympics, we were one of the countries that people were talking about, like they could be the medallists. So maybe that got into our brain, feeling that everyone was expecting that we were supposed to be doing great.

“But at the same time, I think we are one of the countries that have had the most fun out on the ice, no matter if we were losing or winning. And we were always doing our best. Now we finally can kind of relax, but we’re doing great.”

Team United States © World Curling / Ansis Ventins

In the evening, Sweden played hosts Italy hoping for a win and play-off qualification. In the second end, Italy stole a single when Viljo Petersson Dahl came up short with his final draw. In the third, Italy stole another one, when Petersson Dahl wrecked on a guard with his last draw attempt.

In the fifth, Petersson Dahl made a perfect take-out and Sweden scored three to tie the game. Sweden blanked the seventh to carry the hammer into to the eighth. In that end, Petersson Dahl couldn’t remove the shot Italian stone with his last, Italy stole one and won, 4-3.

Team Sweden after their last shot against Italy © World Curling / Will Palmer

Already qualified Canada met Slovakia in the evening, who tried to keep their play-off hopes alive with a win. After a score of two in the first end, Canada stole four in the second when Adrian Durcek’s take-out attempt wasn’t successful.

At that point, Slovakia switched gears and put six points on the board in the following four ends to tie that game, 6-6. Canada were leading 7-6 going into the eighth. In that end Adrian Durcek needed to play a difficult draw to score one for the extra end. He came up short, and Canada stole two for their 9-6 win.

After the game, Canada’s Ina Forrest reflected on their play-off qualification, saying, “Our coaching staff saw that we qualified in the data that they’ve sent out.

Reflecting on their game against Slovakia, she added, “You still wanna make the best shots you can and have a perfect record. So we wanna win every game. We always know that it’s gonna be a complicated game against Slovakia. They are very good at having a lot of rocks in play, so we expected that kind of a game and we tried to avoid it. But it was a battle out there.”

Latvia and Great Britain were both out of play-off contention when they played each other in the evening. Latvia started off with a big score of four in the first end and it set the tone of the game. Latvia were leading, 8-4, after six. In the eighth, Latvia ran Great Britain out of stones and won, 8-5.

Afterwards, Latvia’s Elija Asnina talked about the game, saying, “It was very nice! The Italian fans were crazy, but our fans were cool too.”

Talking about her best memory in Cortina so far, she added, “The first time going into the village and meeting our team, it was really nice. Seeing all of us here, that was the best moment!”

Undefeated and already qualified Canada are leading the standings (7W-0L), while also semi-finallist People’s Republic of China are second (6W-1L).