Canada’s Homan beats American Peterson 10-7 to win Olympic bronze in women’s curling

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO – Emma Miskew looked down the ice at teammate Sarah Wilkes with a wide-eyed grin. Rachel Homan and Tracy Fleury were already in each other’s arms at the other end. 

There would be no need for Canada to throw a final stone. The country was finally back on the Olympic podium in women’s curling.

Homan’s Ottawa-based team outscored American Tabitha Peterson 10-7 on Saturday to win the bronze medal at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. Peterson’s final throw ticked off a guard to end it, giving Homan her first Olympic medal in three trips to the Games.

“It’s hard to describe,” Homan said. “The week that we had, the fight that we showed, I’m so incredibly proud of the team and how we fought to get this bronze medal.”

Her top-ranked side did well to make the playoffs after a 1-3 start. 

Canada needed to win five round-robin games in a row to secure the final spot in the four-team playoffs. A semifinal loss to Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg dropped Homan into the third-place game, where she kept the pressure on against her 13th-ranked opponents. 

“Nothing was left behind today,” said Canadian coach Heather Nedohin. “The sweeps were hard. The lines, they were really close. 

“You could tell there was no letting go (for) these girls. They were going all the way.”

Homan and Miskew were teammates in 2018 when their Olympic debut ended with a missed cut. Homan returned four years later but missed the playoffs again in mixed doubles. 

This was the first trip to the Games for Fleury and Wilkes.

Jennifer Jones skipped the last Canadian women’s team to reach an Olympic podium, taking gold at the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia. 

“To get this is just a pinnacle,” Nedohin said. “It’s a big, huge check mark off of a longtime goal. It’s outstanding.”

Canada has been in true must-win mode for almost a week. 

“We did it,” Miskew said. “We won an Olympic medal and that’s something that we’ve never done before.”

After a tight first half, Homan’s team took control with scores of three in the sixth and eighth ends. Canada took a one-point lead into the 10th and the U.S. was unable to get a steal to force an extra end.

Peterson tried to send her last shot past a guard for a bump onto the four-foot ring to sit shot stone.

“If it got by, the shot was maybe made, so it was close,” she said. “It was still a hope and a prayer though, she still had another shot.”

With a vocal near-capacity crowd split with American and Canadian supporters, both skips had to make precision shots to salvage singles over the first five ends. 

American second Tara Peterson had a stone flash in the sixth end and her sister was wide with a takeout. That allowed Homan to make a nose hit for the first multi-point end of the game.

The 13th-ranked U.S. side pulled even in the seventh when Peterson made a draw for a deuce.

But Canada regained the lead in the eighth as Peterson’s triple-takeout attempt didn’t have enough weight. Only one Canadian rock was cleared and Homan made the open draw for three.

The Americans were under pressure in the ninth but Peterson, a three-time Olympian, came through with a double-tap to make it a one-point game.

“I’m sure that a lot of people probably wrote us off,” Miskew said. “But we were just trying to stay in the moment, try to win and grind as much as we could.”

It was the first U.S. medal game in women’s curling since Kari Erickson lost to Canada’s Kelley Law at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. 

The Canadian men’s curling team skipped by Brad Jacobs was scheduled to play for gold on Saturday night against Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat. Canada’s Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman missed the playoffs in mixed doubles earlier in the Games.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 21, 2026.