In a twist befitting the drama of Olympic curling, Great Britain’s men’s team has carved a path from the brink of elimination to a guaranteed medal, securing a place in the gold medal final after an 8-5 semi-final victory over the previously undefeated Swiss on Thursday night. Their journey, now dubbed the “Cortina Comeback”, was sealed only hours earlier when Italy’s loss to Switzerland in the final group stage game opened the door to the knockout rounds.
The team had promised a different proposition in the knockouts, and they delivered. “An emotional rollercoaster is probably the way to describe this whole week,” said lead Hammy McMillan Jr., part of the rink skipped by Bruce Mouat and completed by third Grant Hardie and second Bobby Lammie. “I guess I’m still in a little bit of shock, because we had to really fight extremely hard.”
Fight they did, in front of a rowdy crowd whose fervent Scottish supporters provided a soundtrack of specially written songs, bagpipes, and even a kazoo. “Any time you hear the bagpipes, you get goosebumps,” McMillan said, acknowledging the energy that spurred them on.
A Pivot on Precision
The match turned on a moment of sheer brilliance from skip Bruce Mouat in the seventh end. With Switzerland poised to score at least three points, Mouat executed a “run back triple takeout”, a feat of geometry where he hit one Swiss stone into another, which then caromed into a third. Instead of a commanding lead, Switzerland was left scrambling to score one.
Mouat, who has played 16 consecutive days at these Games, is renowned as one of the world’s elite shot-makers. His pedigree includes Olympic silver from the 2022 Beijing Games, back-to-back World Championship titles in 2023 and 2025, and multiple Grand Slam and European crowns. “You know, for the last 18 months he’s been incredible,” McMillan said, expressing total confidence in his skip.
The victory also hinged on a stolen point in the sixth end after a missed Swiss hammer shot, and two points in the eighth that gave Britain a 6-5 lead heading into the tenth.
Historic Rivalries and Coaching Pedigree
The semi-final was a latest chapter in a long-standing rivalry between Mouat and Swiss skip Yannick Schwaller, dating to their junior championship clashes a decade ago. Mouat now leads their head-to-head record 22-10, including a win in last year’s world championship final. Schwaller, a former World Junior gold medallist in 2014 who recently claimed his first Grand Slam title in December 2025, has built a strong senior career with world championship medals in 2023 and 2025.
Guiding the Swiss team was legendary Canadian coach Glenn Howard, a four-time world champion as a player who was brought in around the time Switzerland ascended to dominance. Howard, who has previously coached Eve Muirhead’s Olympic rink and Jennifer Jones’ team, came onto the ice during a time-out to advise on the final shots, but his team ultimately missed with their last stone in the tenth end, triggering wild British celebrations.
The Final Hurdle: An Old Foe Awaits
Standing between Great Britain and Olympic gold is Canada, in a final set for Saturday. “It’s going to be a tough game,” McMillan said. “We beat them in the semi-final of the world championships last year, and we know it’s going to be a battle. On paper this week they’ve been the second best team behind Switzerland.”
The match-up is rich with history, pitting the ancient roots of Scottish curling against Canada’s status as the birthplace of modern competitive play. Their past includes Canada’s gold medal victory over Britain at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and their encounters at the 2026 Games have already seen controversies, including accusations of “double-touching” the stone. McMillan stressed the need for a complete performance: “We haven’t probably quite had a full A+ 10-end game yet. So it’s time to bring it on Saturday.”
This “Cortina Comeback” narrative echoes the late surge of Eve Muirhead’s British women’s team to gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, a parallel the current men’s squad, silver medalists in Beijing, will hope to fulfil.
In contrast, the British women’s Olympic campaign ended on Thursday despite a 7-4 victory over Italy, their third straight win for a 5-4 tournament record. Their fate depended on Switzerland beating the USA, and while the Swiss skip pulled off an improbable shot to equalise in the tenth end, the US prevailed in an extra end, leaving the British women just short of the semi-finals.
