{"id":775895,"date":"2026-02-19T23:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/775895\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T23:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:44:12","slug":"canada-reaches-gold-medal-game-vs-britain-in-olympic-mens-curling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/775895\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada reaches gold medal game vs. Britain in Olympic men&#8217;s curling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CORTINA D&#8217;AMPEZZO, Italy &#8212; After a rocky two weeks of Olympic curling that included accusations of cheating and a profanity-laced rant, the Canadian men will play for the gold medal at the Milan Cortina Games.<\/p>\n<p>Canada beat Norway 5-4 in Thursday night&#8217;s semifinals after losing to the Norwegians earlier in the day.<\/p>\n<p>The Canadians 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.<\/p>\n<p>Canada&#8217;s opponent in Saturday&#8217;s gold medal game will be Britain, which stunned Switzerland 8-5. The Swiss were undefeated entering the semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>Norway will play Switzerland for the bronze medal Friday.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Canadians rally after controversy<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The sport was sent into turmoil last week when Oskar Eriksson of Sweden accused Canada&#8217;s Marc Kennedy of breaking the rules by touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice. Kennedy responded with an outburst full of expletives.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"http:\/\/tv5.espn.com\/olympics\/story\/_\/id\/47970011\/2026-milan-cortina-italy-winter-olympics-best-moments-thursday\" class=\"img-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/r1617477_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:2\" href=\"http:\/\/tv5.espn.com\/olympics\/story\/_\/id\/47977189\/tabitha-peterson-us-women-reach-olympic-curling-semifinals\" class=\"img-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/r1617300_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>1 Related<\/p>\n<p>Several other accusations of double-touching followed, and Canada lost its next match against Switzerland before steadying itself to reach the semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>Against Norway, Canada led 3-1 after the sixth end. Norway tightened the score with a single in the eighth. Canada went ahead 4-2 in the ninth.<\/p>\n<p>Norway had the hammer in the tenth end. After a shot by Brad Jacobs that left a Norway stone on the edge of the house, Norway pulled a double, tying the match at 4-4 and pushing it into an extra end.<\/p>\n<p>But Norway missed its final shot of the extra end to send the elated Canadians to the final. They are seeking their first gold in men&#8217;s curling since the 2014 Sochi Games, where Britain was also their opponent in the final.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing that Canada is guaranteed a medal is a &#8220;pretty incredible feeling,&#8221; Kennedy said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We got a couple of old guys (on the team), so we&#8217;re gonna rest&#8221; before Saturday&#8217;s match, he added. &#8220;That&#8217;s going to be a good battle.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Brad Jacobs said his 11-year-old daughter and other family members were in tears in the stands.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;To give them even one more game to cheer for means everything to all of us,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Britain denies Switzerland<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Switzerland was in control for a good portion of its match against Britain.<\/p>\n<p>The Brits scored two in the eighth end to take a 6-5 lead, their first of the match, and Switzerland was blanked in the ninth. Britain scored two more in the 10th to complete the stunner.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;GB into the finals with a record of 6-4 and Switzerland out with a record of 9-1. The Olympics are a cruel, cruel mistress,&#8221; curling commentator John Cullen posted on X.<\/p>\n<p>Britain took silver in the 2022 Beijing Games, losing to Sweden in the final.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s been a wee up and down,&#8221; skip Bruce Mouat said of this tournament. &#8220;But we play well when it matters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He got emotional when he saw his family and friends cheering for him, but shedding tears is not his style.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think I have tear ducts,&#8221; the Edinburgh native said.<\/p>\n<p>Neither, apparently, did a woman in the British fan section who spent much of the game knitting.<\/p>\n<p>The women&#8217;s bronze medal game is Saturday, and the gold medal game is Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CORTINA D&#8217;AMPEZZO, Italy &#8212; After a rocky two weeks of Olympic curling that included accusations of cheating and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-775895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116099957853776813","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}