Curling: Winter Olympics 2026 — GB curlers denied Olympic gold at the death yet again

Bruce Mouat's rink finished with a silver medal after Canada beat Team GB 9-6 in the men's curling final in Cortina, denying Britain the Olympic gold they had chased for more than a century. The result matters because the Scottish quartet arrived in Cortina as world champions and favourites and leave having again fallen short at the very end.

Mouat, Hardie, McMillan and Lammie arrived in Cortina as world champions and favourites

Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Hammy McMillan and Bobby Lammie, with alternate Kyle Waddell, travelled to Cortina as world champions and as favourites for the title. They had come believing this was their time but will leave as silver medallists for the second successive Olympics, having been left bereft by defeat against Sweden in the final in Beijing four years ago.

The quartet have come to dominate their sport since those Games: the team have won two World Championships and two European championships, and their Grand Slam record is variously described in the coverage as a record 12 Grand Slam titles since the last Games and elsewhere as four Grand Slam event wins.

Canada seized the ninth end and secured a 9-6 win

Canada overtook Great Britain in the ninth end, taking three points from that penultimate end to go 8-6 ahead and then converting the last-end response to finish 9-6 and take the gold. It was the second time the Canadians had beaten Mouat's rink in five days and a repeat of the round-robin reverse earlier in the week.

The Canadian side is led by 2014 gold-medallist Brad Jacobs; his time-served team had beaten GB in the earlier round-robin meeting, a rare reverse for Mouat’s side, and Jacobs traded points with Mouat through a cagey opening half of the final.

Game flow: key ends, pivotal shots and the deciding sequence

Canada had finished the round-robin stage ahead of Team GB and therefore had the hammer for the first end; GB limited that opening end to one for Canada and then took two points in the second. Canada went 3-2 up in the third end, and Britain levelled after four ends.

At the halfway mark Canada had had the hammer three times but only led 4-3 after the fifth end after a miss from Brad Jacobs when he failed to blank the end to retain the hammer. Mouat then produced a double takeout in the sixth to pick up two points and move GB into a 5-4 lead, with Britain enjoying the momentum briefly before Canada levelled 5-5 after the seventh.

The eighth proved crucial: GB missed shots and took only one, leaving them 6-5. With Canada holding the hammer in the ninth and a four available, Canada scored three to move 8-6 ahead. Britain had the hammer in the 10th; Mouat spun in an excellent stone with his second-to-last throw, knocking away two opponents' stones, but a strong response from Canada seized back the ascendancy and secured the gold.

Emotion, history and the players' responses

Mouat was visibly emotional after the match. "I'm a bit in shock. I think we felt like we were the better team. I don't know what to say, " he said, and elsewhere said, "I'm just a bit shocked. We felt like we were probably the better team there. " Mouat also reflected on his wider Olympic record, having now played in four Olympic medal matches across the mixed doubles and men's events at two Games and losing each of them.

Grant Hardie said, "I'm heartbroken, " adding that they had lost the final four years ago and had found the motivation to try again. Hammy McMillan, who is Hardie's cousin, said, "It took me four years to get over the first silver, so it will probably take a lot longer this time. " Hardie also spoke of having wanted to retire after the last Olympic final and the pain that motivated them to return.

Mouat said he intends to carry on to the next Olympics in France — "100%... I love the sport, I love my teammates. And I'm not done yet. " He also said the team had not had the conversation as four individuals about who will continue and that whether Bobby Lammie and the others will join him next time is unclear in the provided context. Two of the British players were left in tears after the final.

Cortina backdrop: rocky 10 days, a semi-final described as "our gold medal", and crowd moments

The past 10 days in Italy were not straightforward for Team GB; they were on the brink of a shock early exit as recently as Thursday but recovered to guarantee a medal after an epic semi-final win over Switzerland on Thursday that Mouat referred to as "our gold medal. " Despite that recovery they did not get the one they really wanted and lost 9-6 in the final.

The final was played in the Cortina Ice Arena, where bands of Scottish fans had travelled and where, at one point, McMillan's cousin struck up "Loch Lomond" on his bagpipes from his seat in the stadium eyrie. The crowd sang loudly after Mouat's sixth-end double takeout that put Great Britain back in front, but the late swing in the ninth ended British hopes and denied Team GB what would have been their first men's Olympic gold in more than 100 years and the nation's fourth gold of these Games.

• Team GB line-up: Bruce Mouat (skip), Grant Hardie, Hammy McMillan, Bobby Lammie; alternate Kyle Waddell.
• Final score: Canada 9, Great Britain 6; ninth end produced the decisive three points for Canada.