Winter Olympics 2026 women’s curling: Switzerland qualify for playoffs; Team GB, Canada, Republic of Korea, USA still in the hunt
Switzerland became the second women’s curling team to advance to the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 semi-finals after another dramatic day of action at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium on Wednesday (18 February).
The Swiss, already on a 5-2 win-loss record heading into the evening’s game, managed to hold the hungry Danes to 6-4, thanks to a crucial three-point 10th end, to book their ticket into the next stage of the competition.
“It was a big grind. They played amazing. The back end played over 90 per cent, you know, so it’s tough to win if the opponent plays that well. I’m very happy we pulled out the win, it was a crazy last end, but we made some great shots,” Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni said to Olympics.com afterwards.
“It’s not every day that you are in a semi-final of the Olympic Games, so this is amazing.”
The loss now means Denmark joins Italy and the People’s Republic of China in being out of contention for the last two remaining semi-final spots.
However, the hosts could still play a critical role in determining which, out of the remaining teams, advances.
Italy will play Great Britain in both teams’ final round-robin meeting on Thursday (19 February), and following back-to-back wins over the United States and Japan, the reigning Olympic champions have managed to stay in the hunt for the playoffs.
Team GB’s last-rock thrower, Rebecca Morrison, produced one of the shots of the tournament in Britain’s 8-7 victory over Team USA.
With her final stone, the fourth used a wing guard to hit and roll in for two points, which proved enough to get a two-point steal and revive the Beijing 2022 gold medallist’s playoff chances.
They then returned to the ice to beat Japan 9-3 in eight ends to move to a 4-4 standing, and set up a critical last-match showdown against Italy.
“Miracle? Maybe not,” Morrison laughed, speaking to Olympics.com about her big-game moment against the U.S., “but real tough and you miss that more than you make it, I reckon, so I’m absolutely delighted.”
On the crunch game Thursday, she said: “We just want those five wins, no matter if it means we make playoffs or not. We want five wins, so going to go out there and do all we can.”
