It was a bit of a buggy debut for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
During the first end of mixed doubles curling play at Milano Cortina 2026, the games had to stop because of a power outage that caused the lights to go out. Play resumed after about a five-minute delay at a facility originally built in 1955 to host the opening and closing ceremonies and figure skating at the 1956 Olympics.
Then, in the third end of Canada’s match versus Czechia, blood ended up on the ice after Jocelyn Peterman accidentally stepped on a bug. A quick technical timeout occurred during which her teammate and husband, Brett Gallant, cleaned up what Peterman called a massacre.
“I killed a large animal and now there’s blood everywhere,” Peterman said on mics picked up by the broadcast.
All of that took place, plus, you know, four curling matches on the opening day of the mixed doubles competition.
Great Britain 8, Norway 6
Switzerland 9, Estonia 7 (EE)
Canada dominates opening match
Peterman and Gallant will be in play for the gold medal if they play like they did in their opening match against Julie Zelingrova and Vít Chabicovsky from Czechia.
It didn’t take long for the game to get out of hand.
After Canada stole one in the first end, the second end saw Chabicovsky miss multiple shots, leading to Gallant and Peterman making them pay.
Zelingrova was facing four of Canada’s stones in the four-foot on her last rock, and with her best shot, still at minimum, the Czech’s would’ve been giving up a steal of two.
However, Zelingrova threw too much weight and was wide, giving up a steal of four to Canada to take a commanding 5-0 lead.
With a 7-4 lead in the sixth end, Peterman put the nail in the coffin with a beautiful tap back while playing back eight-foot weight to bump Czechia’s shot far enough to get three points and take a 10-4 lead.
Czechia scored one in the seventh but decided to call it quits, giving Canada a massive 10-5 win to gain some confidence going into a much tougher day on Thursday, where they will face the defending Olympic gold medalists Stefania Costantini and Amos Mosaner from Italy.
Peterman said they’ve been waiting a while for this and are happy to finally be playing.
“We’ve been preparing for this for a long time,” Peterman said after the match, per Curling Canada. “It was nice to finally get out there and throw those first few rocks; yeah, it was fun.”
Shot making is one thing, but Peterman and Gallant’s communication throughout the game was a driving force. Every shot, the pair wouldn’t stop chatting about where the rocks were for weight and line, something that is massive in mixed doubles curling with only two people on the ice.
The off-ice chemistry probably helps a little bit as well.
Switzerland faces early scare
Medal contenders Briar Schwaller-Huerlimann and Yannick Schwaller from Switzerland felt comfortable going into the eighth and final end versus Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill from Estonia with a 7-3 lead.
Maybe even too comfortable.
Because in a mistake-filled eighth end by Huerlimann and Schwaller, Kaldvee and Lill took advantage, resulting in a big score of four to tie the game at seven and send it to an extra.
In the extra end, Huerlimann and Schwaller managed to pull out the victory, avoiding the potential opening day upset.
For Schwaller — who’s coming off his best Grand Slam of Curling season — it wasn’t the best Olympics debut. On 17 draws, he shot 65 per cent, while on 10 hits, only 60 per cent for a total of 63 per cent.
Maybe it was just the jitters of playing his first Olympic games, but if the two want to medal, Schwaller will need to adjust to the ice and play like his normal self.
The second day of mixed doubles competition gets underway at 4:05 a.m. ET/ 1:05 a.m. PT with Canada’s first game of the day taking place at 8:35 a.m. ET/ 5:35 a.m. PT.
