Canada, the world’s historic curling powerhouse, is feeling the pressure at Cortina

Canada's Brett Gallant in action during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Britain at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The desperation played on the faces of Canadian curling couple Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman on Saturday as they watched Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds send red stones pummeling into their carefully set yellows.

Canada’s loss Saturday morning in mixed doubles curling marked its second in the round robin phase, following a defeat Saturday at the hands of the U.S. team.

To curling fans, the matchup was a faceoff between the historic dominance of Canada, and the growing rigor of other nations’ training programs in the sport. The result cemented how much the field has changed through the last few Olympiads.

“It’s an exact representation of where curling is at,” Devin Heroux, an Olympics reporter for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation who has spent years watching the Canadian duo curl, said after the match. “For a long time in Canada, there was this feeling that the country produced the best rock hurlers in the world. Now they are realizing that the world has not just caught up with them, it has surpassed them.”

Still, both teams are expected to safely qualify for the next round, along with the U.S. and Italy. Fresh off this win, Great Britain is now within touching distance of qualification. There are 10 teams in total playing mixed doubles at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games.

Canada’s Saturday opponents, Great Britain’s Mouat and Dodds, are best friends who have honed their craft through years spent curling side by side at Scotland’s National Curling Academy, founded in 2017. They’re one team out of several that has emerged in recent Olympiads as formidable opponents to the Canadians.

The Pyeongyang Games in 2018 was the first time neither of Canada’s 4-person teams won a medal. Then in Beijing, Canada won just one bronze medal across all disciplines.

Following the game, the athletes all mentioned the ice conditions at Cortina’s curling center had massively changed from the day before, forcing them to adjust their game.

Both Gallant and Dodds agreed that the ice was up to two seconds “faster” than the day before, meaning their curling stones were sliding more quickly on the ice. Gallant compared the ice adjustments to “taking a Honda civic for a drive down the highway and then jumping in a Ferrari.”

“It’s not an excuse,” he added. “The team that adjusts to the changes better will get the advantage, so that’s on us. They adjusted quicker than we did.”

His opponents agreed.

“We coped with it very well,” said Dodds, before she and Mouat headed off to rest before their match against the U.S. — also undefeated — later in the day.

“I think we’re in a really good spot. We’re communicating very well and we now know what the ice is gonna do for the rest of the event,” said Mouat.

So far at Cortina, the ice changes have shown themselves to be so significant that “being able to embrace and adapt to the changing conditions will be what allows one of these teams to win gold,” said Heroux.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Julia Frankel, The Associated Press