Winter Olympics 2026: GB men into Olympic final as women squeezed out
Having a chance at any medal color was beyond the British men’s side, which was heavily touted as recently as Wednesday morning.
But their most successful performance to date – against the United States – served to realize their threat, and they were stress-tested in the most important matches in a way the Swiss were not.
In fact, the closest Yannick Schwaller’s men came to defeat here was when they were taken to an extra end by the Great Britain quartet on Sunday.
However, Switzerland played on this ground earlier in the day and adapted to the conditions better at the start and took advantage by taking two points in the second.
A slow start cost England the field in other matches this week but this time they responded much better; Mouat leveled the scores in the third game with a balanced draw.
These are arguably the two best teams in the world at the moment, but mistakes played a part in a competition that lacked the high quality of their previous encounters.
Mouat’s misjudgment allowed the Swiss to grab two more in the fourth and take a 4-3 lead at half-time, but mistakes were coming from both sides.
In the sixth round, we experienced an incident that changed the course of the competition.
Switzerland made a three-point shot in the last shot. But the attempt glanced one of his own pieces on the way and slotted home to give Britain a steal and new hope of making it 4-4.
The Swiss took the lead again in the seventh, but only by one after a superb shot from Mouat averted curling disaster, and the Great Britain captain then added two of his own to the board to give his home side a two-point lead for the first time.
What was the Swiss response? They opted to vacate the ninth, meaning two in the final would take them to the final and avenge last April’s World Championship final defeat.
The final stone was reached, but Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel was a little behind and this ratio gave Team GB at least the silver medal.
Bobby Lammie told BBC Sport: “This was probably the toughest win we’ve ever had and I’m glad we did our best when it really mattered.”
