Canada upset by Sweden in women's Olympic curling semifinals, Swiss beat US
#Curling#Milan Cortina 2026#Canada vs Sweden#Olympic Semifinals#Silvana Tirinzoni#Anna Hasselborg
📌 Key Takeaways
Sweden upset top-ranked Canada 6-3 in the women's curling semifinals.
Switzerland defeated the United States 7-4 to advance to the gold medal game.
Sweden and Switzerland will compete for the gold medal on Sunday.
Canada will play the US for the bronze medal on Saturday.
Canada's controversial men's team remains the country's last chance for curling gold.
📖 Full Retelling
Canada's hopes for a women's curling gold medal were crushed at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics on Friday, February 20, 2026, when the top-ranked Canadian team suffered a shocking 6-3 defeat to Sweden in the semifinals held in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. This unexpected upset eliminates the Canadian women from gold contention and forces them to play for bronze, while simultaneously placing the weight of the nation's curling ambitions on the controversial men's team, who remain the last Canadian squad in contention for the top prize.
Sweden, ranked 12th globally entering the match, delivered a disciplined performance to silence the favorites and secure a spot in the final. This marks another deep run for Anna Hasselborg’s squad, which has won the women’s competition three times since curling returned to the Olympic program in 1998. They will face a formidable opponent in Silvana Tirinzoni’s Swiss team, which advanced to the final by defeating the United States 7-4. Despite their recent dominance on the world stage—including four straight gold medals at major non-Olympic competitions and silver medals at the last two world championships behind Canada—the Swiss are still seeking their first-ever Olympic gold in the women's event.
The results set the stage for a gold-medal clash between Sweden and Switzerland on Sunday, while Canada will regroup to face the United States in the bronze medal match on Saturday. The outcome is a bitter pill for the Canadian curling program, which was already shut out of the mixed team event medals earlier in the Games. Now, all eyes turn to the Canadian men, who are set to face Britain for gold on Saturday. Their journey has been overshadowed by a significant controversy regarding rules violations, specifically accusations of double-touching the rock, making their upcoming final a critical moment for the sport's power to salvage their Olympic performance.
Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice towards a target area that is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across t...
Silvana Petra Tirinzoni (born 25 June 1979) is a Swiss curler from Zurich. She is a four-time women's world champion skip (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023) and seven-time Grand Slam champion. She is a former world junior champion and two-time European champion.
Anna Ellinor Hasselborg (born 5 May 1989) is a Swedish curler who is the 2018 Olympic Champion in women's curling and a former World Junior Champion skip. In November 2019, she became the first curler in history to reign as the simultaneous holder of the European Curling Championship gold medal, the...
Tournament format in which the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated
A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, whose winner becomes the tournament champion(s). Some ...
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the second-largest country by total area, with the longest coastline of any country. Its border with the United States is t...
Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located at the intersection of Central, Western, and Southern Europe. It is bordered by Germany to the north, France to the west, Austria and Liechtenstein to the east, and Italy to the south. Switzerland is geographically divi...
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the largest Nordic country by both area and population, and ...
Canada upset by Sweden in women's Olympic curling semifinals, Swiss beat US Canada’s controversial men’s team will have the curling power’s last chance at Olympic gold at the Milan Cortina Games By The Associated Press February 20, 2026, 10:58 AM CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy -- CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Canada’s controversial men’s team will have the curling power’s last chance at Olympic gold at the Milan Cortina Games . With Canada already shut out of the mixed team event medals, the country’s top-ranked women were upset by Anna Hasselborg’s Sweden in Friday’s semifinals. Sweden, ranked No. 12, will face Switzerland for gold on Sunday. Sweden, which has won the women’s competition three times since curling returned to the Olympic program in 1998, beat Canada 6-3. Silvana Tirinzoni’s Switzerland beat the United States 7-4 and will be aiming for their first women’s gold at the Olympics. The Swiss took silver behind Canada at the last two world championships after four straight golds in the biggest curling competition outside of the Olympics. Canada will play the U.S. for bronze on Saturday. Popular Reads Nancy Guthrie live updates: Man detained last week identified Feb 19, 11:57 AM The mysterious Nancy Guthrie abduction: A full timeline Feb 19, 8:20 AM Nancy Guthrie case: Person released as search for 'armed individual' continues Feb 10, 11:15 PM In the men’s competition, Canada faces Britain for gold on Saturday, while Norway was playing Switzerland for bronze later. The Canadian men were the subject of a controversy that got attention far beyond the ice when several players were accused of double-touching the rock, a rules violation. ___ AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics Related Topics Olympics Sponsored Content by Taboola Popular Reads Nancy Guthrie live updates: Man detained last week identified Feb 19, 11:57 AM Nancy Guthrie case: Person released as search for 'armed individual' continues Feb 10, 11:15 PM The mysterious Nancy G...