Great Britain will take on Canada in the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 men’s curling final after both came out on top of a stunning set of semi-finals on Thursday (19 February) at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.
After a nervous morning watching to see if they would secure a playoff spot, a spirited Team GB produced an impressive second half to overcome round-robin winners Switzerland 8-5, in the first of two concurrent semi-final games.
Down 3-4 at the halfway mark, the Britons notched a steal of one in the sixth end to level the score, before a remarkable shot by skip Bruce Mouat in seventh helped hold the Swiss to their first single of the game.
Facing three Swiss stones all in a scoring position, Mouat delivered a superb runback triple to eliminate all three of the stones, and flip the script to have Britain lying three as Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel lined up for his final throw.
It proved a momentum-swinging moment, with the Britons then scoring a deuce in the eighth end to lead for the first time in the semi-final, 6-5.
Eager to keep the advantage of the hammer into the 10th, Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller opted to blank the ninth end and began trying to find a route for a double score.
But it wasn’t to be for Switzerland, with the Beijing 2022 silver medallists lying shot after a hit-and-roll from third Grant Hardie with the ninth stone of the end.
Mouat was then able to add a second with his penultimate stone, and the situation was such that Schwarz van-Berkel was left with a “Hail Mary” final shot.
And when his double takeout attempt came up wanting, the British contingent in the crowd erupted in celebration.
“Incredible. Very, very proud of the guys for all of us sticking together. It was a tough first five ends, so we knew that we had to do something different, and the vibe changed as soon as we got that steal in the sixth, and we made that shot in the seventh,” Mouat said to Olympics.com afterwards.
“Making shots like that in a competition like this, in a situation like that, you know, it’s the dream. It’s what I’ve been wanting to do: prove my abilities, I suppose.
“It’s just so nice to have the opportunity to now go and hopefully get redemption for four years ago.”
