The Canadian men’s curling team started its Olympic Games in 2026 with controversy, but ended it with Gold.

The greatest prize in men’s curling has returned to the country that has largely dominated the sport over the last few decades. For the first time since 2014, Canada won the Gold Medal at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy, defeating Great Britain 9-6 in a thrilling match between two of the best teams on the planet.

Canadian skip Brad Jacobs and Bruce Mouat of Scotland were at their best throughout the match on Saturday in Cortina. The two teams traded points with the hammer throughout with no team ever leading by more than one point until after the 9th end, when a series of half-misses from the Scots helped Canada take control with a three-point end. That gave Canada an 8-6 lead, but in the tenth with Great Britain holding the hammer, Jacobs had his team throw rock after rock into the house, giving Mouat little chance to score multiple points. Eventually, Mouat’s final shot, an attempted double takeout, could not remove both Canadian rocks, leaving Canada scoring one point for the win.

The win was a return to glory for Jacobs’ squad, three of whom won Gold for Canada at Sochi in 2014. It came on the heels of the team being the frequent target of criticism from opponents and fans alike, as vice Marc Kennedy got into a dustup with his Swedish counterpart early in the round-robin portion of the tournament. The Swedes accused Kennedy of double-touching a rock after he had reached the hog line, and a still photo appeared to show Kennedy doing just that — and even grazing the granite, which is never allowed under any circumstance. That led to a heated argument on the ice and later to the implementation of officials at the hog lines for a brief period, though their presence was short-lived.

Ultimately, Canada did its job in plenty of tense game situations as well, returning a Gold medal to Canada mere hours after the country’s women’s team delivered a Bronze in a win over the United States.

The men’s Bronze went to Switzerland, whose team went undefeated at 9-0 through the round-robin. However, they fell to Great Britain in the semifinals 8-5 on Thursday evening, handing the Swiss their first loss all tournament long and forcing them to play for the Bronze. Mouat was on the other end of that experience in the mixed doubles tournament, as he and Jennifer Dodds earned the top seed but lost to Italy in the semis. This time, Mouat and the Scots escaped a potentially disastrous end in the 7th when he hit a raise-triple takeout, then jumped ahead 6-5 in the 8th and stole two in the tenth to hold on for their victory to clinch a medal.

Switzerland then dominated Norway in the Bronze Medal game, controlling the match early and cruising to a 9-1 victory. Norway had fallen to Canada in the other semifinal game in one of the tightest matches of the week. That game went to an extra end after Norway scored a pair in the tenth end to tie the score at 4-4, and the Norwegians had a difficult shot to try to find a steal. Skip Magnus Ramsfjell could not convert the in-off, leaving a Canadian rock on the button and sending Brad Jacobs’ team into the final with a 5-4 victory.

Brad Jacobs (skip/4th), Marc Kennedy (vice/3rd), Brett Gallant (2nd), Ben Hebert (lead), Tyler Tardi (alternate)

Bruce Mouat (skip/4th), Grant Hardie (vice/3rd), Bobby Lammie (2nd), Hammy McMillan Jr. (lead), Kyle Waddell (alternate)

Benoit Schwatz-van Berkel (skip/4th), Yannick Schwaller (vice/3rd), Sven Michel (2nd), Pablo Lachat-Couchepin (lead), Kim Schwaller (alternate)

How the Medal Round Took Shape

It was a largely stress-free week of curling for the Swiss team, who cruised through the round-robin with few challenges. Seven of their nine matches were separated by 4 points or more, with only China (9-7) and Great Britain (6-5 in an extra end) even keeping the games close.

The center of controversy during this Olympic tournament was the Canadian team, particularly vice Marc Kennedy. Early on in the tournament he got into a shouting match with Sweden vice Oskar Eriksson, who accused Kennedy of illegally touching a rock across the hog line late in the match. The incident spawned videos and memes galore and drew opinions from all over the curling community. It also raised questions within the sport about whether independent officials should be on hand to monitor for rule violations rather than relying on the competitors themselves to police the game.

Regardless, Canada was unphased, cruising through the round-robin to earn the second seed in the semis. Their second loss came in the final match, when Norway beat them to lock in their own semifinal spot and set up a rematch in the medal round.

It took until the last day of the round-robin for Norway to clinch a spot, with their big 8-6 win over Canada sending them through. Norway’s skip, Magnus Ramsfjell, made a perfect double takeout with his last rock, leaving Canada with no path to score two points with the hammer and sending Norway through.

It was a choppy path there, however. They started out well, going 3-1 over the first few days, but those three wins came over a few of the teams that ended in the bottom half of the standings. They finished out 2-3 with wins over Great Britain and then Canada to earn the 3rd seed. If Norway had lost to Canada instead, that would have set up a 4-way tie for 4th at 4-5 and Team USA would have earned the final semifinal spot thanks to tiebreaker procedures.

The top-ranked team in the world coming into the Olympics, Bruce Mouat’s squad also took their medal round qualification down to the wire. It went well enough early for the Scot, as Team GB started 4-1 before losing three straight to the other three semifinalists before bouncing back to earn their playoff spot with a 9-2 victory over Team USA in the final match.

That game saw American skip Daniel Casper struggling, giving up a steal of 4 points in the 3rd end when he sent a draw deep and through the house. Combined with Italy losing to Switzerland at the same time, GB got the final spot and a semifinal match against Switzerland, who had previously beaten GB 6-5 in an extra end on Sunday afternoon.

Final Round-Robin Standings