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Winter Olympics live: Team GB miss out on curling gold in nail-biting final against Canada

Great Britain face Canada in the men’s curling final hoping to go one better than they managed in Beijing four years ago

(Getty Images)

Great Britain missed out on their fourth gold medal of the 2026 Olympic Games and failed to end a 102-year wait for a men’s curling gold when they slipped to a 9-6 defeat to Canada.

Bruce Mouat’s rink where beaten by the Canadians in the round robin last Tuesday but put in a superb performance as they challenged for the ultimate prize in Cortina.

The British quartet saw off Switzerland 8-5 in the semi-finals to guarantee at least silver - which they won in Beijing four years ago - and it was to be silver again as Canada capitalised on slender errors in the ninth end to score three points and take an unassailable lead into the final end.

Mouat had a shot to force an 11th end but jammed onto one of Canada’s stones gifting a point to his opponents and seeing the gold medal slip away.

Elsewhere GB’s Zoe Atkin was made to wait until Sunday to chase glory in the freeski halfpipe after the final was postponed due to a snowstorm in Livigno.

Follow all the action from the Winter Olympics in our live blog below:

Pinned

Team GB’s curlers condemned to second successive Olympic heartbreak in Canada defeat

12 years on from masterminding Canada’s last Olympic curling gold, skip Brad Jacobs broke British hearts once again, defeating Bruce Mouat’s rink 9-6 in an edgy final to condemn GB to being bridesmaids once again.

24 years to the day since Rhona Howie’s infamous ‘Stone of Destiny’, Mouat could not replicate that great escape. It was silver again for the Beijing runners-up, who despite being comfortably the best team of the last two years could not make that advantage count on Saturday night.

Team GB’s curlers condemned to second successive Olympic silver by Canada

Canada won their third Olympic gold in five Games, while for Team GB it was an agonising silver again after the same result in Beijing
Flo Clifford in Cortina21 February 2026 21:06

Jen Dodds speaking after the match

Women’s curling vice skip watched the men’s final and spoke to the BBC afterwards.

She said: "Gutted for them. They haven't shied away from the fact this has been their goal. They wanted to win Olympic gold. You can tell that from their emotions now.

"They were so close and in such a great position in the eighth end. They will want to replay that ninth end hundreds and hundreds of times over.

"I am so proud of them. The fight in the 10th end was just amazing."

Mike Jones21 February 2026 21:22

Reaction from Grant Hardie

Team GB third, Grant Hardie said: "[Our friendship] is why we wanted to win it for each other.

“The pain from four years ago was that much, we thought we'd give it another go, had the chance, but unfortunately we haven't got there again."

(Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)
Mike Jones21 February 2026 21:21

Bruce Mouat reacts to winning silver again

Teh Team GB skip said: "I'm a bit in shock. We felt like we were the better team there. I don't know what to say.

"Regardless of the result, the incredible thing we will take away is the amount of people who have come out to support us and have messaged us from back home. The boys and I love our sport, we want people to come and join our sport.

"If we can take anything away from ths week as well as the silver medal, it's being able to inspire people to hopefully want to participate. That is an achievement in itself."

Mike Jones21 February 2026 21:17

Canada beat Great Britain to win curling gold

(REUTERS)
(Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)
(Andrew Milligan/PA Wire)
Mike Jones21 February 2026 21:13

Great Britain 6-9 Canada

Bruce Mouat needs to take out the remaining two yellows.

They’re sitting in a line and he hits them too straight...

Canada take a steal and more importantly they win the gold medal!

Mike Jones21 February 2026 20:51

Great Britain 6-8 Canada

Mouat now needs to take out the yellows in the middle and leave GB sitting up.

A tough shot for him but he looks confident.

Mouat does it beautifully and leaves three reds in play. It should be an easy one for Jacobs though in order to limit GB’s scoring.

Jacobs hits his own yellow on the nose, ricochets onto two reds and leaves Canada sitting two up...

Mike Jones21 February 2026 20:49

Great Britain 6-8 Canada

Another decent shot from Hardie sees his stone curl in from the left.

He takes away one of the yellows and leaves four reds in the house.

GB need to score at least two but three will win them the gold.

Two stones each to go.

Brad Jacobs is coming with the takeout. He gets two of the reds and leaves Canada sitting two up!

Mike Jones21 February 2026 20:46

Great Britain 6-8 Canada

Marc Kennedy has a tough shot here. He wants to try and move the reds around and preferably take them out of the house.

He likes his release as he draws in from the right. It’s a slight nudge on the red and creates a better angle for Canada’s next shot.

What can GB do in response?

Mike Jones21 February 2026 20:44

Great Britain 6-8 Canada

Two reds and three yellows sit in the house as Kennedy moves the last guard away.

Hardie tries to curl in deep and leave his red in behind the rest of the stones in the middle.

It’s a nice shot and he does well.

Three stones each to go.

Mike Jones21 February 2026 20:41

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