Winter Olympics 2026: Curling kicks off Milan Cortina games, with Sweden and Canada forcing early wins

The 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics are officially underway. Play started Wednesday, with curling mixed doubles kicking off the event. 

Eight countries took the ice during round-robin play, including two medal winners from the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. Silver medalists Norway took on Great Britain, while Sweden, which took home the mixed doubles bronze in 2022, faced off against South Korea. The two other matches featured Canada vs. the Czech Republic, and Estonia vs. Switzerland. 

Sweden looked motivated in its first match at the 2026 Olympics on Wednesday. The 2022 bronze medalists turned in a dominant performance, beating South Korea 10-3 in just six ends. Following the sixth end, Seonyeong Kim and Yeongseok Jeong offered a handshake to Sweden, which was accepted. That was, perhaps, a surprising outcome considering how the match started. South Korea picked up points in both the first and third end, jumping out to a 3-2 lead before Sweden got rolling.

Team Canada also forced an early handshake during its win over the Czech Republic on Wednesday. With Canada up 10-5 after the seventh end, the Czech Republic opted to go for the handshake. 

Canada got off to a tremendous start in the match, taking a point in the first end and then four points in the second end to go up 5-0. The Czech Republic managed three points in the third end, but couldn't keep up the pace with Canada from there. 

The 2022 silver medalists, meanwhile, picked up a loss in their first match. Norway kept it close with Great Britain early, with both teams sitting at four points through five ends. But a strong sixth end by Great Britain, in which the team scored three points, proved to be the different. Norway tried to battle back, picking up two points in the seventh end, but Great Britain was able to put things away in the eighth end, winning 8-6. 

The final match may have been the most exciting of the day. With Switzerland leading the entire match, Estonia needed a miraculous four points in the final end to tie things up. Somehow, it got the job done. After a four-point eighth end, Estonia forced an extra end. But the team couldn't hold that momentum, eventually falling to Switzerland 9-7.

Olympic curling rules, explained

If you didn't grow up in Canada — where curling is most popular — you might be unfamiliar with the rules of the sport. 

The basic gist of it involves players trying to guide granite stones across ice toward a target area known as a "house." Teams take turns trying to land their stones on the house, with the goal being to get them as close to the bullseye as possible. The team closest to the bullseye gets a point for every stone it gets closer than its opponent's closest stone. After 10 "ends," which you can think of as an inning in baseball, the team with the higher score wins. Each team gets eight stones per end, so it's possible, though unlikely for a team to go 8-0 in an end. That's called a snowman, and is the equivalent of an immaculate inning in baseball. 

There are some slight deviations from those rules during mixed doubles. Mixed doubles only has eight ends, not 10. And teams throw five stones per end. 

The round-robin portion of mixed doubles curling will take place between Wednesday, Feb. 4 through Monday, Feb. 9. The four teams with the best records at that point will advance to the semi-final round. Those games will also be played Feb. 9.

From there, the mixed doubles bronze and gold-medal games will take place Tuesday, Feb. 10. 

Once the mixed doubles event is complete, men's and women's curling will start up, with the men beginning their round-robin stage Feb. 11 and the women taking the ice Feb. 12.