Winter sports fans across the globe are glued to the action at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, and Sunday’s curling and skating drama offered plenty to talk about. Great Britain’s men’s curling team, led by Bruce Mouat, experienced a day of high-stakes swings—first dispatching Germany in commanding fashion before being edged out by Switzerland in an extra-end thriller. Meanwhile, British athletes made history and set new benchmarks in figure skating and monobob, underscoring Team GB’s growing presence on the icy Olympic stage.
The day began with the British men’s curling squad taking on Germany in the round robin stage. Mouat and his rink—still riding momentum from last year’s World Championship final—showed why they’re considered medal contenders. They jumped to a 5-2 lead at the break, then accelerated away, ultimately sealing a 9-4 victory. The win marked their fourth in six matches, keeping them firmly in the hunt for a semi-final berth.
But the real test came later in the day: a rematch against Switzerland, who had denied them World Championship gold just a year earlier. This contest lived up to its billing as a clash of titans, with both teams trading single points in a tense, tactical battle. Mouat’s crew managed a crucial steal in the third end to lead 3-2 at halfway, but the Swiss, skipped by Yannick Schwaller, responded with the game’s only multiple-point end in the seventh, nudging ahead 4-3.
As the ends ticked by, neither side blinked. Heading into the 10th, Great Britain trailed 5-4 and needed a big finish. Mouat, already lying one, had the last stone—a chance to draw for two and the win. But the pressure was immense, and his shot clipped a Swiss guard, forcing the game into an extra end. With the hammer, Switzerland kept their nerve and closed out a 6-5 win, preserving their unbeaten record at 5-0.
“It was a great game. It could have gone either way but they took their chance in the end,” vice-skip Grant Hardie told BBC Sport after the loss. Mouat, reflecting on the razor-thin margin, added, “On another day we come away with the win. It’s going to be tough to beat them but we know we are playing pretty well and it would be exciting to play them again.”
The defeat leaves Great Britain joint third in the round robin standings at 4-2, still very much alive in the playoff race but with little room for error. Two more wins from their remaining matches will likely be enough to guarantee a semi-final spot and a shot at Olympic glory. Their next assignment? A crucial showdown with Norway scheduled for Monday afternoon.
Elsewhere on the curling sheets, the United States made a statement by notching back-to-back wins over Sweden and Norway, improving their record to 4-2 and joining Britain in the playoff mix. Canada, Norway, and host nation Italy remain in the chase, making the men’s curling event one of the most hotly contested in recent Olympic memory.
On the women’s side, fortunes were less favorable for Team GB. Rebecca Morrison’s rink, fresh off a signature win over Canada, faced the unbeaten Swedish squad that had denied them European gold just months earlier. The Swedes roared out to a 7-3 lead at the break, capitalizing on two big ends with the hammer, and never looked back. Despite a spirited fightback, Britain fell 10-7, leaving their semi-final hopes hanging by a thread.
“It’s really hard at this level—it’s near-misses and we’re a couple of centimeters away from making great shots,” Morrison admitted to BBC Sport. “It’s frustrating but that’s what happens at the Olympics. You need to be at your best and we just weren’t quite there.” With five round robin games remaining, the British women will need at least four wins to have any hope of advancing. Their next tests come Monday against Denmark and Switzerland—a double-header that could define their campaign.
Switching gears to the figure skating rink, British pair Anastasia Vaipan-Law and Luke Digby delivered a season-best performance in the short program, scoring 66.07 to qualify 13th for the final round of the pairs competition. Their journey to Milan-Cortina hasn’t been easy: Digby battled a wrist injury that hampered their lift practice, and Vaipan-Law endured a fall in the team event’s throw triple Salchow. But on Sunday, the duo put those doubts to rest with a confident, clean routine.
“That little celebration at the end was me releasing all the emotion of it going exactly as I wanted it to,” Vaipan-Law told the BBC, beaming with relief. Digby echoed the sentiment: “Seeing so many British flags, that energy gave us a little extra. We kept our heads and we were nice and calm. A clean skate, we couldn’t ask for any more at the Olympics.”
They’ll skate fourth in the free program, aiming to surpass their best World Championship finish of 12th. At the top of the leaderboard, Germany’s Minerva Fabienne Hase and Nikita Volodin hold the lead with a score of 80.01, while European champions Anastasia Metelkina and Luka Berulava are in second, seeking Georgia’s first-ever Winter Olympic skating medal.
History was also made at the sliding track, where Adele Nicoll became the first British woman to compete in the monobob event at the Olympics. The 29-year-old Welsh athlete, who has two World Cup silver medals in the two-woman bobsleigh, clocked 2:00.83 over her two heats, placing her 13th at the halfway point—just 1.71 seconds behind Germany’s Laura Nolte, the leader. Nicoll, who was a reserve at Beijing 2022 and is also a three-time British shot put champion, described the experience as “really surreal and emotional.”
“I was more nervous than maybe I’d realized for the first run and I felt a little bit like jelly on the block,” she confessed. “Seeing the Milan-Cortina Olympic rings was really surreal and emotional. These were all first experiences, I just wanted to do myself proud.” With medal hopes slim, a top-10 finish would be a significant achievement for Nicoll, who still has the two-woman event and a possible Commonwealth Games appearance on her radar.
As the Winter Olympics approach their midpoint, the stakes are rising for Team GB’s athletes across the board. The men’s curling squad remains well-placed for a playoff run but can’t afford any slip-ups, while the women’s team faces a must-win stretch to keep their medal dreams alive. Vaipan-Law and Digby will look to ride their momentum in the pairs free skate, and Adele Nicoll will aim to climb the monobob rankings in the decisive heats.
With every stone thrown, skate landed, and sled pushed, the drama in Milan-Cortina only intensifies. Monday’s schedule promises more twists and turns as British athletes chase history and Olympic hardware under the bright Italian lights.