GB men into Olympic curling final as women squeezed out

· BBC Sport

ByRichard Winton
BBC Sport in Cortina
Published
889 Comments

Bruce Mouat and his rink have guaranteed Team GB's fourth medal of these Winter Olympics after seeing off unbeaten Switzerland 8-5 to reach the men's curling final in Cortina.

The British quartet - who are the reigning world champions - will face Canada in Saturday's final (18:05 GMT), looking to upgrade the silver medal they won four years ago in Beijing.

But that is the least these four Scots will achieve in these Games in Italy.

Mouat, Grant Hardie, Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie came here top of the world rankings and targeting nothing other than what the emotional skip called "our gold medal" in the immediate aftermath.

And for all they struggled in the round robin and only earned their place in the medal-matches thanks to Italy losing on Thursday morning, they now stand one step away from achieving that ambition.

"It will be the biggest match of our lives and we're so excited to get that opportunity again," vice-skip Grant Hardie told BBC Sport.

However, Britain's women had their own dreams shattered earlier in the day in the most dramatic of circumstances.

Rebecca Morrison's rink needed to beat Italy​ in their final round-robin match, and they did. The other part of the equation was that Switzerland had to overcome the United States.

But the Swiss were unable to do their bit - despite coming from three down to force a nerve-shredding extra end - rendering Britain's 7-4 victory over the hosts moot.

Mistakes and magic swing epic contest

Having a shot at any colour of medal looked beyond the heavily-touted British men as recently as Wednesday morning.

But their most accomplished performance to date - against the United States - served notice of their threat and they came into the matches that matter most, stress-tested in a way the Swiss had not been.

Indeed, the closest Yannick Schwaller's men had come to defeat here was in being taken to an extra end by the GB quartet on Sunday.

But Switzerland had played on this sheet earlier in the day and initially adapted better to the conditions, taking two in the second to cleave open an advantage.

In other matches this week, a slow start has cost the British rink but they responded much better this time, Mouat levelling the scores with a composed draw in the third.

These are arguably the two best teams in the world right now, but mistakes were playing a part in a contest that lacked the high-grade quality of their earlier meeting.

A Mouat misjudgement allowed the Swiss to take another two in the fourth and open a 4-3 lead at the break, but the errors were coming from both sides.

And in the sixth, we had one that changed the whole tenor of the contest.

Switzerland had a shot at three with their final throw. But the attempt glanced one of their own stones on the way through and skittered right through the house to give Britain a steal and fresh hope at 4-4.

The Swiss nudged back ahead in the seventh, but only by one after a fabulous Mouat shot averted a curling catastrophe, and the GB skip then added two of his own to the board to give his rink the lead for the first time with two ends left.

What did the Swiss have in response? They opted to blank the ninth, meaning two in the final end would put them in the final and given them revenge for their World Championship final defeat last April.

It came down to the final stone but Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel was a fraction off and that fraction has secured at least a silver medal for Team GB.

"That's probably the hardest-fought win we've ever had and glad we brought our best when it really mattered," second Bobby Lammie told BBC Sport.

Women do their bit... but luck runs out

The women's team - European silver medallists last year - had really grown into this tournament since losing their opening two matches.

Needing three closing wins to put themselves into the semi-final conversation, they snatched an incredible final-stone win over the United States and executed a composed dismantling of Japan - both on Wednesday.

Italy - their closing round-robin opponents - were below them in the standings but had also belatedly found form and wanted to end their home Games in style.

Morrison's rink controlled throughout, though.

They were 4-1 ahead after four ends and, although the Italians did cut that lead, the Scottish quartet managed the game well and eased clear again late on to earn a fifth win in their last seven matches.

However, after the immediate celebrations, they could only watch on askance as the already-qualified Swiss fell just short in the extra end and allowed the US to dash the British team's dreams of an incredible medal with a 7-6 win.

"We're absolutely gutted by so, so proud," skip Sophie Jackson told BBC Sport, standing next to her tearful team-mates. "We have a tough start to the week and we did everything but we could but just left it too late."

Winter Olympics 2026

6-22 February

Milan-Cortina

Watch on iPlayerListen on Sounds

Watch two live streams and highlights on BBC iPlayer (UK only), updates on BBC Radio 5 Live and live text commentary and video highlights on the BBC Sport website and app.

Full coverage guide

Related topics