Author
World Curling Media
17 February 2026
Victories in Tuesday evening’s men’s tenth round-robin session by Switzerland and Canada mean that both have now qualified for the semi-finals.
Switzerland faced Germany in this session, and opened with a score of two points in the first end, when their fourth player Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel played a take-out on a German stone.
Germany blanked the second end and, in the third, their skip Marc Muskatewitz was facing four Swiss counters when he came to play his last stone — he successfully drew inside them all to score one point and reduce the Swiss lead to 2-1.
The Swiss moved further ahead in the fourth end when Schwarz-van Berkel played a double take-out to score two more for a 4-1 lead.
Germany scored one in the fifth to go into the break down by 2-4, then, in the sixth Switzerland extended their lead again with a score of three through a Schwarz–van Berkel take-out.
The Swiss then added a single steal in the seventh when Muskatewitz could not draw inside a Swiss counter, giving Switzerland an 8-2 lead.
Switzerland’s Sven Michel © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
Germany scored two in the eighth through a draw by Muskatewitz to reduce the Swiss lead to 8-4, and then conceded.
This seventh win by Switzerland not only preserved their unbeaten record, it qualified them for the semi-finals.
Afterwards a delighted Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller said, “Semi-finalists? Sure…great. But we’re trying not to think about that too much, we just want to keep playing and having fun. Semi-final…bronze game…gold game, it doesn’t matter, we just want to keep on having a ton of fun.”
Canada faced Great Britain in this session, with both fighting for a semi-final place.
The Canadians had a good start when, after a Canadian stone jammed at the back on a British take-out, their skip Brad Jacobs played a hit and stay to open the scoring with two points.
Canada’s Ben Hebert and Great Britain’s Grant Hardie © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
Britain could only score one in the second end, then in the third, Canada’s Jacobs scored one with a hit and stay to take a 3-1 lead.
Great Britain levelled in the fourth with a draw, scoring two for 3-3 after an umpire’s measure.
In the fifth end, Jacobs drew inside four British stones sitting in the house to add one more point and go into the break leading by 4-3.
Great Britain scored two in the sixth end to take the lead — at 5-4 — for the first time in the game, but in the seventh, when British skip Bruce Mouat could not clear out all the Canadian stones clustered round the button, Canada was able to score three for a 7-5 lead.
Single steals by Canada in both the eighth and ninth ends sealed the 9-5 win that meant that they would join Switzerland in the semi-final line-up.
Canada acknowledge the fans after their win © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
After the game Canadian skip Brad Jacobs said, “That was huge. We figured that six wins was the number we’d need. It’s been a big number in Olympic men’s curling for many years now.”
He added, “We had a good end in the seventh when we got that three-spot. They are the number one team in the world and all through my career, they’ve always had my number.”
Great Britain now sit in joint fifth place, alongside United States of America, who they play next, and both of these teams retain slim semi-final hopes, although they now depend on results elsewhere, as well as their own.
Italy’s Amos Mosaner celebrates a successful shot © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
The Americans faced hosts Italy in this session, another team with semi-final hopes.
This game was tied at 3-3 at the break, but in front of what has become the usual enthusiastic home crowd, Italy’s skip Joel Retornaz played a nose-hit for three points in the sixth end to take a 6-3 lead.
The teams then swapped scores of two in the next two ends. Then traded single-point scores in the ninth and tenth ends, to give Italy their fourth win so far, by 8-5, putting them in joint third place alongside Norway, who lost out to Sweden by 4-7 in this session.
Norway skip, Magnus Ramsfjell wearing the iconic Fancy Pants © World Curling / Stephen Fisher
After his team’s win, Italy’s Retornaz said, “Still alive, that’s what we were looking for. We wanted to be in it at the end of the round robin and having our chances to qualify for the semis without looking at the other sheets and what the other teams are doing.”
“It’s all in our hands, we know we can beat everyone here and we know we can lose to everyone, because the field is so strong at the Olympics. I think it’s the strongest Olympics I’ve ever been to. So still alive — we’ve got our chances and we’re going to go for it tomorrow.”
Find live scores from the men’s team curling at Milano Cortina 2026 here.
Find the full men’s team curling schedule and results here.
Join the World Curling community!
Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok, LinkedIn and Weibo and by searching the hashtag #curling #MilanoCortina2026
Sign up for the World Curling Newsletter and receive monthly updates directly to your inbox.
