Great Britain’s men’s curling team came painfully close to Olympic gold, but had to settle for silver after a tense 9–6 loss to Canada in the Milano Cortina 2026 final.
Skip Bruce Mouat, alongside Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan, pushed Canada deep into the match before the final ends swung decisively the other way.
The scoreline looks clear, but the contest wasn’t, with momentum shifting end by end and pressure building with every stone.
The turning point arrived late, when Canada capitalised on British errors to score three in the ninth end and put a grip on the game that never really loosened.
Canada then closed it out with a steal in the tenth, sealing gold and leaving Team GB with the familiar sting of finishing second on the sport’s biggest stage.
For Mouat, it’s a second consecutive Olympic silver after Beijing 2022, an outcome that hurts in the moment but also underlines how consistently elite this rink has become.
Team GB arrived with the weight of expectation after a dominant season that marked them as one of the pre-tournament favourites, and they largely played like it until the very end.
Canada’s skip Brad Jacobs framed the victory as a statement performance, especially after his team dealt with distracting controversy earlier in the tournament.
In Reuters reporting, Jacobs described accusations from Sweden about cheating during round-robin play as outrageous, and said the noise only sharpened Canada’s determination to prove themselves.
That edge showed when it mattered, because Canada stayed clinical under pressure and made the late-game calls that separate finalists from champions.
For British fans, this is also the story of a team that keeps showing up in the medal matches and making the sport feel urgent again back home.
It’s hard not to view Mouat’s leadership as part of that shift, because he brings a calm, modern confidence that fits the way curling is evolving on the global stage.
Mouat’s visibility matters too, as an openly gay Olympian competing in one of the Winter Games’ most tactically intense events while keeping his focus squarely on performance.
He has spoken publicly about being out and the importance of honesty within a team environment, and he lives in Scotland with his boyfriend Craig Kyle.
Moments like this still matter, because seeing queer athletes in high-stakes finals normalises excellence rather than turning identity into a storyline that has to be explained.
Silver is not what Team GB wanted, but the medal still lands as proof of sustained greatness, and the kind of platform that can inspire the next generation of curlers watching at home.
📷 IG: @ brucemouat / craig_thebagel
