Gb Curling Team Falls Short as Canada Clinches Gold After Late Collapse and Semi-final Drama

The Gb Curling Team were defeated by Canada in the men's curling gold medal match, losing 9-6 after faltering in the final ends. The result denied the British side a chance to become the first Olympic men's curling gold medallists for the nation since 1924 and capped a tournament that had already seen them guarantee at least a silver after a tense semi-final win.

Gb Curling Team: Final-day collapse hands Canada the gold

The decisive conclusion saw Canada secure victory with the final two stones of the match, a sequence that clinched gold and left Great Britain contemplating another near miss in Olympic men's curling. The British side finished the match 9-6 after failing to find enough scoring in the closing ends to overturn the deficit.

Semi-final drama: Mouat’s run-back triple takeout and the Cortina comeback

Before the final, the British team reached the gold medal match by edging Switzerland 8-5 in a semi-final that has been described as a Cortina comeback. At nine o'clock on Thursday morning Great Britain were unsure if they would even reach the semi-finals; by nine o'clock that night they had beaten the previously unbeaten Swiss to earn a place in Saturday's final against Canada.

The semi-final turned in the sixth end when Britain managed to steal after Switzerland's vice-skip missed a tricky hammer shot. The game then swung dramatically in the seventh when Bruce Mouat executed an improbable run-back triple takeout that removed multiple opposition stones and prevented the Swiss from scoring the three points they had been expecting. Britain added two in the following end to lead 6-5 going into the 10th and held on to win 8-5.

Team makeup, route to the final and Olympic context

The British men's line-up lists Bruce Mouat as skip, Hammy McMillan Jr as lead, Bobby Lammie as second, Grant Hardie as third and vice-skip, with Kyle Waddell named as alternate. The first four players had formed the team at the previous Winter Games, while Waddell returned to the Olympic stage for the first time in eight years.

The path to the knockout rounds was narrow: Great Britain scraped through the round-robin stage only because the Italian team lost their last group match to Switzerland. Britain’s round-robin record stood at five wins and four defeats, while the Swiss had gone through the round-robin unbeaten with nine wins. By reaching the final the British side were already guaranteed at least a silver medal and were aiming to improve on their silver from the previous Games. Had they won, they would have been the first British men's curling squad to win Olympic gold since 1924.

Rivalries, coaching moves and crowd colour

Mouat’s friendly rivalry with Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller stretches back to world junior championships a decade ago. Schwaller won their earliest meetings, but Mouat held a dominant head-to-head advantage coming into the semi-final, recorded as 22-10, including victories in their last four meetings. Britain had also beaten the Swiss 5-4 in last April’s world championship final.

The Swiss side had added experience in bringing in a four-time world champion as national coach, a figure who came onto the side of the ice during time-outs to attempt to guide his team through the critical final shots. The semi-final atmosphere was notably partisan, with a loud contingent of Scottish fans singing specially written songs, a bagpiper and even someone playing a kazoo.

Controversy, wider Games notes and remaining events

The tournament has also been marked by allegations around the handling of stones after release, with claims of double-touching levelled at the Canadian men's and women's teams as well as Mouat’s squad. The dispute escalated following an explosive match between Sweden and Canada and prompted an increase in the level of umpiring for subsequent matches. The Canadian side in the final was identified in coverage as being led by Brad Jacob.

Elsewhere at the Games, the women's halfpipe final was postponed until Sunday at 09: 40 GMT, with Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin described as having a strong medal chance; the ultimate outcome for that event will be revealed on Sunday morning. There were five gold medals noted as remaining to be contested on the 16th and final day of the 2026 Winter Olympics, even as coverage described the current day as the penultimate day. Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo won a sixth gold in the 50km cross-country race, while Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave finished sixth. The conclusion of the men's ice hockey bronze medal match between Slovakia and Finland was also highlighted as reaching its ending. Readers were invited to have their say through an on-site engagement feature.

Voices from the rink and closing notes

Hammy McMillan reflected on the emotional rollercoaster of the week and admitted the side had to fight extremely hard, saying they had started slowly and that the Swiss had taken advantage early on. Mouat described his seventh-end shot as one of the best he has played and celebrated with a small fist pump; McMillan praised Mouat as an exceptional shotmaker and expressed full confidence in his ability to finish big shots. Commentary also recalled Eve Muirhead’s fourth attempt at Olympic gold in 2022, noted as probably her last chance at the time, and celebrated that she went for it and the team delivered.

Coverage contributors listed for the live updates included Katie Stafford, Phil Cartwright and Josh Lobley. The sequence in the final that sealed gold for Canada and the truncated account of one coaching intervention in the Swiss camp are unclear in the provided context.