GB men into curling semis but women squeezed outMedia caption, GB make men’s curling semi-finals after Switzerland beat ItalyByRichard WintonBBC Sport in CortinaPublished19 February 2026, 10:27 GMT401 Comments
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GB men into curling semis but women squeezed outMedia caption, GB make men’s curling semi-finals after Switzerland beat ItalyByRichard WintonBBC Sport in CortinaPublished19 February 2026, 10:27 GMT401 Comments
Team GB’s men’s are now just one win away from a guaranteed Winter Olympic medal after sneaking into the semi-finals – but the women’s team have agonisingly missed out on a place in the last four amid incredible scenes in Cortina.
Bruce Mouat’s world champions, who were on the brink of a shock early exit in Italy, watched from the athletes’ village as the hosts lost to Switzerland on Thursday morning to gift them a last-four tie later in the day against the Swiss (18:05 GMT).
But Britain’s women were unable to follow them into the medal matches, despite winning a third consecutive game.
Rebecca Morrison’s rink needed to beat Italy in their final round-robin match and hope Switzerland could overcome the United States.
But the Swiss were unable to do GB a second favour of the day – despite coming from three down to force a nerve-shredding extra end – rendering Britain’s 7-4 victory over the hosts moot.
“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 everthing but we could but just left it too late.”
Having a shot at a medal looked beyond the heavily-touted men as recently as Wednesday morning.
But their most accomplished performance to date – against the United States – allowed the men to close with a record of five wins from their nine round-robin matches.
That would only be enough for the pre-Games favourites if one of Italy or Norway both lost their final two games… and it was the hosts who faltered, giving Mouat and his men an unlikely reprieve.
“Once you get to the semis, it’s a new tournament,” a bullish GB lead Hammy McMillan told BBC Sport on Wednesday.
Should the Scottish quartet win a repeat of last April’s world final against the Swiss, they will play in Saturday’s gold-medal contest (18:05) and would be guaranteed to match, at least, the silver they won in Beijing four years ago.
Defeat will leave them battling it out for the bronze medal on Friday (18:05) against whoever loses the other semi between Canada and Norway, who edged GB into fourth in the standings on the head-to-head record.
The women’s team – European silver medallists last year – have 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 shown how resilient we are this week,” stated third Jen Dodds. “We’ve been together all the way and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
Winter Olympics 2026
6-22 February
Milan-Cortina
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.
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