Team GB's Curling Heist: Can Men's Team Extend Winter Olympics Tradition?
Team GB have secured three gold medals at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, and the men's curling team, determined to upgrade their silver medal from Beijing, could deliver a fourth. This opportunity comes only after a nail-biting round robin phase that nearly left them empty-handed and out of contention entirely.
A Narrow Escape to the Final
After what feels like an eternity of curling action, Team GB's men have booked their place in the gold medal match. A medal, either gold or silver, now awaits them. For Bruce Mouat's rink—the dominant force in curling, reigning world champions, four-time European champions, and Olympic silver medallists from four years ago—only gold will suffice.
It could so easily have been no medal at all. Mouat has been the busiest athlete in Cortina, competing for 16 consecutive days, starting even before the Opening Ceremony. A loss in the mixed doubles bronze medal match meant everything rested on the men's event. However, Team Mouat distinctly underperformed, baffling all observers, and ended up relying on other results to secure a semi-final spot.
Hosts Italy obliged by losing to the top two qualifiers, Switzerland and Canada, in their final two matches. Having made this narrow escape, the sleeping giant of GB awoke: they dispatched the heartbroken Swiss, who had dominated the round robin, sending them packing. Mouat condemned Switzerland to the same fate he and mixed doubles partner Jennifer Dodds endured last week. The pair swept through the group stage, losing only one match, before losing their edge in the knockouts and walking away empty-handed, denied a medal for the second consecutive Games.
Stepping Up When It Matters
After scraping into the last four by the skin of their teeth, Mouat's rink did what he and Dodds couldn't: they stepped up a gear. This formula has previously delivered Olympic glory for Team GB. Rhona Howie—then known as Rhona Martin—and her rink needed to win two successive tie-break matches to reach the semi-finals in 2002, having stumbled in the round robin; they went on to beat Canada in the last four and upset heavy favourites Switzerland in the gold medal match, winning through Martin's final stone.
Eve Muirhead's champion team in 2022 squeaked into the last four with the same 5-4 record as Mouat's and won in an extra end to progress to the final. Britain's curlers have never done it the easy way. Howie remarked: "Having that experience of winning the world championships in Canada [in 2025] will be huge for them, and they have played an Olympic final before. They will know what to expect, and that helps."
"What we have seen is them improving at the right time. They had their losses, no disasters, and the only thing that mattered was getting through. The round-robin and the knock-outs are like separate tournaments, and now they are in the final, the rest doesn't matter. Bruce has the experience to know that."
"If he is standing there with a shot to win, he won't be thinking of 'Stone of Destiny' or anything like that. He will have laser focus and won't freeze. Just a clear thought on what he needs to do. It's why he is so good."
Gold Medal Showdown with Canada
That last-four victory over Switzerland guaranteed Team Mouat a medal; a gold would be the first for a British men's squad in 102 years. On Saturday, they will face Canada, the most controversial side of these Winter Olympics, in a bid to upgrade their silver from Beijing 2022. An Olympic gold medal is the only trophy the world champions are missing—but they must overcome foes both past and present to achieve it.
British curler David Murdoch, who skipped the silver medal-winning team in Sochi 2014, joined GB's coaching set-up after retiring as a player. However, in 2023, he jumped ship and is now high performance director for their opponents on Saturday. Greg Drummond, the third in that Sochi team, took his place as GB head coach that same year, and the former teammates will be reunited on opposite sides of the ice.
Controversy and Drama
Canada have hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons in these Olympics, with a nation famed for fair play and niceness accused of cheating on the ice. A row erupted when Sweden's Oskar Eriksson accused Canada's Marc Kennedy of deliberately double-touching a stone, which the Canadian furiously and explicitly denied. Secret camera footage proved Eriksson right and raised eyebrows over how common this double-touching practice was, if Sweden knew in advance what they had to do to catch their opponents in the act.
World Curling took no action, and after a couple of days of increased surveillance on the sheets, backed away. However, the sport's and Canada's reputations were sullied. Kennedy responded this week, stating: "People don't really have an idea what the guys had to go through and myself had to go through this week. So to fight through that, to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to fight as hard as we did, to get through what we did, and then be here now, it's a pretty incredible story."
"And again, I just can't say enough about the support group around us that just made this possible. Stuff like that happens, you lean on the people you love, and it helps you get through it. I love these guys, and we were able to do something pretty incredible."
High-Stakes Final
Both sides will hope to avoid a repeat of the Sweden-Canada drama, with the stakes higher than ever on Saturday. World Curling will not actively referee the final but will have umpires available to monitor deliveries if teams raise concerns over a throw. Yet, the drama that has dominated the past fortnight of curling threatens to overshadow Saturday's fight for glory.
Opponents have learned better than to underestimate Team GB, but Canada swept past them 9-5 in an error-strewn round robin game. Mouat and his teammates must block out all outside noise and the despair of missing out on gold in Beijing to continue the long tradition of Britain's curlers pulling off the greatest heist of all.
