Tough day for Canadian curling as Team Homan loses both games at Milano Cortina 2026
Rachel Homan and Team Canada squandered an early 4-0 lead and fell to a third straight loss that puts them in jeopardy of not making the playoffs in women’s curling at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Games on Saturday.
The best women’s team in the world the last two years lost momentum halfway through the game and a veteran, resilient Team Switzerland took advantage to score four in the seventh end to hand Homan a potentially devasting 8-7 extra-end defeat.
It was the second loss of the day for Homan. Team Canada lost 7-6 to Great Britain in the morning draw and is now 1-3 and in eighth place in the round robin with only four teams advancing to the playoffs.
Speaking for the players, Curling Canada national coach Viktor Kjell said it certainly was a tough day for Team Homan.
“I felt this morning the play wasn’t great,” said Kjell. “I thought everything that happened in this game tonight, we did so many good things, there were so many good things to carry forward.
“Even look at what happened in the first end and how we stuck together as a team after that. Unfortunately, a couple of missed shots at the end and that’s it.”
For the first half of the game, it appeared that not even a first-end controversial and questionable burned stone call on Homan’s first rock would deter the Canadian skip from getting her team back on track.
An official ruled Homan’s finger had touched her rock after she had released it and had the stone removed from where it had stopped in the four foot. The call came a day after controversy arose in the Canada-Sweden men’s game where Oskar Eriksson accused Canadian third Marc Kennedy of cheating by touching the granite after releasing his stone.
The pair exchanged words, Kennedy told the Swedish third to “f… off,” and social media exploded. World Curling Federation officials clarified the rule overnight and placed officials on the hog line to monitor the situation. On Saturday, Curling Canada officials accused Sweden of filming the Canadian team in violation of WCF rules.
In the midst of those accusations, Homan and the women’s team slid into the middle of it and got called immediately. Homan could be heard saying to the official: “I have never done that in my life.”
Once the call was made, there was no appeal and no video replay. Homan responded by delivering her strongest game of the tournament.
Having not curled even 75 percent in any of the previous three games, Homan statistically curled only slightly better at 81 on Saturday, but her hitting was back to form at 100 percent through five ends and 86 by game’s end.
Canada stole a single in the second end, capitalizing on two misses by Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni, who throws third, and another by Alina Pätz who throws fourth.
The veteran Swiss team turned the momentum somewhat with singles in the fourth and fifth ends. Switzerland found new enthusiasm after those ends while Canada’s early momentum sagged as the ends piled up.
Two missed line calls on Homan draws in the seventh end, coupled with two excellent hit-and-roll shots by Switzerland, left Canada stunned by a four count that put the Swiss up 6-5. The teams traded singles through the final five ends with Pätz, who only curled 68 percent, making the two key shots in the tenth and eleventh to give Switzerland the win.
After a double runback takeout by Pätz ended Canada’s chance for two, Homan’s only shot was a draw for one in the tenth. After Homan’s hit-and-roll to shot rock in the extra, Pätz responded with a perfect draw for the victory.
In the other evening games, Sweden (Anna Hasselborg) beat Italy (Stefania Constantini) 8-6; the United States (Tabitha Peterson) defeated Japan (Sayaka Yoshimura) 7-4; and Denmark (Madeleine Dupont) defeated Korea (Gim Eun-ji) 6-3.
Sweden leads the standings at 4-0 with Switzerland and the U.S. at 3-1, followed by China (Xu Xiaoming) 2-1, Denmark and Korea both 2-2, Great Britain (Rebecca Morrison) 1-2, Japan and Canada at 1-3, and Italy 0-4.
The ten teams each play nine round-robin games with the top four then advancing to the semifinals on Feb. 20. The bronze medal game is set for Feb. 21, followed the next day by the gold-medal match.