Canada to play for bronze after falling to Sweden in women’s curling semifinal

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO – As the roar from the Swedish fans reverberated throughout Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, the four Canadian players walked stone-faced back to their bench. 

A 6-3 semifinal loss to Anna Hasselborg had yet to sink in. There was no dramatic finish on this day, Sweden was simply clinical with its shotmaking and ran the Canadians out of rocks in the 10th end.

Not a word was said as Rachel Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes gathered their things while their coaches and team alternate looked on in silence.

A chance to play for Olympic gold had come and gone. An appearance in the bronze-medal game would have to suffice.

“They’re heartbroken,” said Canadian coach Heather Nedohin. “Their opportunity and their dream was to be in the final. And so right now the feeling is heavy.”

A 2-2 game at the fifth-end break turned when Sweden scored the first multiple-point end in the sixth after a couple Canadian misses. Homan’s side simply couldn’t generate offence against their longtime rivals and was held to three singles.

“I’m obviously disappointed,” Homan said. “We tried everything out there.”

Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni posted a 7-4 win over Tabitha Peterson of the U.S. in the other semifinal. Canada will play the United States in the third-place game on Saturday.

As the top seed, Sweden started the game with hammer. The teams regularly forced the other over the first four ends. 

In the sixth, Fleury missed a takeout and took out her own stone while Homan’s runback-double attempt cleared just one rock. The Canadian skip’s hit-and-roll attempt caught the nose, and Hasselborg took it out for a deuce. 

Homan tried a risky angle-raise in the seventh, hoping for a multiple-point score, but gave up a steal of one. 

Another angle-raise in the eighth end gave Canada a single, but Hasselborg made a double-takeout in the ninth to restore her three-point lead.

“I woke up this morning and told the girls, ‘I really believe we’re winning today,'” Hasselborg said.

Homan shot a game-low 57 per cent on her draws and was just 70 per cent overall. Sweden shot 84 per cent as a team to 73 per cent for Canada.

“They were really sharp today, and we weren’t quite getting that specific placement,” Homan said. 

Homan is making her third career appearance at the Winter Games. She missed the playoffs on both previous occasions.

Canada hasn’t reached the podium in Olympic women’s curling since Jennifer Jones won gold in 2014 at the Sochi Games in Russia.

“It was a grind out there,” Miskew said. “They played well, we just kind of struggled to get the rocks in the perfect spots to get a multiple.” 

Hasselborg won Olympic gold in 2018 at Pyeongchang, South Korea and took bronze four years later in Beijing. The three-time European champion is ranked 12th in the world. 

Homan, the world No. 1, is a three-time world champion and five-time national champion. The semifinal loss ended a five-game winning streak after a 1-3 start.

“I think their resilience showed right from the middle of the week,” Nedohin said. “I think we played against a really strong team today and I think they outplayed us.”

Canada needed to win its final game of the round-robin to secure the fourth and final berth in the playoffs at 6-3. Homan beat Hasselborg 8-6 earlier in the week but dropped a 9-8 decision to Peterson.

Getting up for a third-place game can sometimes be tough for Canadian curling rinks, who often have a gold-or-bust mentality. 

But stepping onto an Olympic podium would be a career first for Homan and all three of her teammates. 

“We’ll try hard to battle for Canada for that bronze,” Miskew said.

Peterson, meanwhile, sounded like she was looking forward to the matchup on Saturday afternoon.

“We beat them already, so we might as well do it again,” she said. 

The Canadian men’s team skipped by Brad Jacobs will play Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat for men’s gold on Saturday night. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2026.