Milano Cortina 2026: Curlers clinch place in gold medal match on Day 13

Bruce Mouat's rink earned their place in the final of the men's curling with a dramatic victory over Switzerland on Day 13 of Milano Cortina 2026.

They will face Canada in the gold medal match on Saturday, after defeating the Swiss 7-5 in a tense encounter that went down to the final stone.

A back-and-forth contest left Team GB 6-5 ahead going into the final end but Switzerland - who won all nine of their round robin matches - held the hammer.

But their final stone fell short of the one they needed to send the match to an extra end, with Team Mouat instead stealing one for a famous 7-5 victory that guaranteed them a medal.

All that is to be decided now is the colour, silver or gold, four years on from the silver they won at Beijing 2022.

“Honestly, it was just like the most incredible week," said Mouat, who produced one of the shots of the tournament in the seventh end.

"It's not gone all our way and knew that this morning we might not be playing again. “So, so many emotions have happened today and one day and it's just yeah, it was a wee bit overwhelming in the moment to realise that we had won."

Atkin drops in with style

Zoe Atkin has been made to wait to hit the snow at Milano Cortina 2026 but it was more than worthwhile as she breezed through women's freeski halfpipe qualifying.

The 23-year-old put down an opening run worth 91.50 points and that was all she needed to top the standings heading into Saturday's final.

"I landed my first run, so that gave me a lot of confidence and just so much relief and the judges actually ended up really liking it," she said.

"I think it brings me a lot of confidence that I have a lot in the bag for finals, so I'm excited.

"It's a really exciting time for women's halfpipe and freeskiing right now.

" Of course I want to go and do the best and I want to win but I think it's also really special to watch the other girls throw down and to give the world a really good showcase of what women's skiing is all about and just show the progression that is happening in the field right now."

Team Morrison bow out

While it was ecstasy for Team Mouat, Rebecca Morrison's rink felt the opposite side of sport as they narrowly missed out on a place in the semi-finals.

The permutations seemed to be increasing by the second, but Team Morrison knew all they could do was beat Italy and hope other results went their way.

They did their part, with a 7-4 win over the Italians, and came agonisingly close to going through but saw the USA edge out Switzerland after an extra end when a Swiss victory would have seen progress for Team GB.

“It was the worst feeling of watching an extra end in my life," said Jen Dodds.

“I've never, never felt that stress watching an extra end before.

“Obviously, we knew Switzerland needed to win to give us any chance. So, it was a very tense extra end, I can imagine, for the Swiss and the American.

“They played a great last shot and hats off to them.”

Sportsbeat