Guide to curling at the Winter Olympics: How it works, teams to watch and more

The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics

The sports buffet at a Winter Olympics is a mix of the everyday staple, occasional treat and mystery dish.

Curling is one of the latter, and there is a lot of it. In fact, it is the only sport played every day of the Milan Cortina 2026 schedule. So, whatever curling is, the International Olympic Committee wants us to try it.

And we should. You and me together, as I have volunteered to be The Athletic’s curling-taster in Italy.

But before tucking into this slice of exotica, I did what any sensible diner would do: I spoke to the chef, in this case, Team GB’s “chef de mission” (Olympic-speak for non-playing team captain) Eve Muirhead.

I did this not just to make the buffet/schedule analogy work, but also because Muirhead was the skipper of the gold medal-winning British women’s curling team at Beijing 2022, a double world champion and four-time European champion. So, she knows her onions.

With the Olympic competition beginning Wednesday in Cortina d’Ampezzo, here’s a guide to the sport.

The basics

Curling is an ancient game: There is evidence that Scots were doing it in the early 16th century. Like golf, penicillin, television and so much else, curling is a gift from Scotland.

The game is played by two teams of four players (except for in mixed doubles, in which each team features one man and one woman), and they take turns throwing their stones towards the “house,” three concentric rings marked on the ice, at the end of a rectangular “sheet.” Each player gets two stones, and the aim is to get as many of your stones as close to the middle of the house — called, “the button” — as possible. Teams earn a point for each stone closer to the button than their opponents’ best effort.

Once everyone has thrown and worked out the points, they turn around and throw their stones to the other end of the sheet. At the Olympics, they do this 10 times in the men’s and women’s events, and eight times in the mixed doubles. These sets of throws are called “ends.” The players throw in the same order each end, with the “lead” going first, then the “second,” followed by the “third,” with the “skipper” or “skip” throwing the last two stones.

And the stones do not move down the ice in straight lines. Guess what? They curl. This is where the brooms come in, as the stone’s trajectory can be influenced by players sweeping the ice just in front of the moving rock.

“My dad played and I was just obsessed as a kid,” recalls Muirhead, who also won an Olympic bronze medal in 2014, world titles at junior and senior level, and four European championships.

When Muirhead says her dad “played,, what she means is he was a three-time silver medalist at the world championships and a competitor at the 1992 Winter Olympics, where curling was a demonstration sport. Her two brothers are also Olympic curlers.

A talented bunch, then. Muirhead was also a scratch golfer who could have won a scholarship to a U.S. college, as well as being a champion bagpiper. Have I mentioned she is Scottish?

“People often ask why I chose curling, but it wasn’t a tough decision,” she says.

“If I went to America to play golf, I wouldn’t have been able to pursue my curling, and I knew I had a big opportunity in curling.”

And the bagpipes?

“Oh, I’m just a cheap gig for friends’ weddings now.”

The field of play

Having started outdoors, curling moved indoors in the 19th century, with clubs popping up in Canada, Scandinavia, the United States and anywhere else Scots ventured.

As mentioned, the playing surface is called a sheet, and it is about 150 feet long and 15 feet wide (45 metres X 5 metres).

The house is centred on the intersection of the “centre line,” which runs down the middle of the sheet, and the “tee line,” which is parallel to the end of the sheet, the backboard, about 16 feet (4.9 metres) in. The button, the middle of house, is on the intersection of those two lines, and it is surrounded by three concentric rings with diameters of four, eight and 12 feet. The smallest ring is typically painted red, the middle ring is left white and the outer ring blue. There are houses at each end of the sheet.

“Hacks,” the rubber footholds curlers use to push off from when throwing the stone, are fixed on the centre line, near the backboard. To make a legal throw, or “delivery,” a player must release the stone before it crosses the “hog line.” There are two of those, one for each end of the sheet, and they are drawn across the sheet 37 feet (11 metres) from the backboards.

The most important thing to know about the ice is that it is flat but not smooth.

“You can’t curl on a skating or ice hockey rink,” explains Muirhead. “The stone wouldn’t go anywhere. So you put millions of tiny water droplets on the sheet to cause less friction between the ice and stone. The droplets freeze into what we call ‘pebble’ — if you run your hand over the ice, it’s rough.”

It can also hurt.

“If I had two tips for a beginner, the first would be: Don’t run on the ice. You will fall over, and ice is hard.”

And the second?

“Don’t lift the stones. They’re 20 kilos (44 pounds).”

Tools of the trade

They might put your back out, but there is something magical about a curling stone.

They are made of a rare micro-granite that is mined in only two places on the planet: Ailsa Craig, an uninhabited island 10 miles off Scotland’s west coast, and Trefor Quarry in north Wales. And all the stones used at the Olympics are made by one small Scottish factory with granite from Ailsa Craig.

In terms of dimensions, they must be four and a half inches high (114 millimetres) with a circumference of no more than 36 inches (914mm). The bottom of the stone is concave, which means only some of it touches the ice. This is called the “running surface,” and it is a flat ring no more than half an inch wide (12.7mm) and five inches in diameter (130mm).

On the stone’s top side is a plastic handle, which is attached by a bolt. These handles are usually coloured red or yellow, to identify each team’s stones, and the players control which way the stone curls by rotating the handle in one direction or the other.

“We call them an ‘in turn’ and an ‘out turn,'” explains Muirhead. “For an in turn, you twist clockwise and the stone will move from left to right. For an out turn, it is the other way around.”

Until the 1950s, curling brooms were similar to the hardwearing corn brooms people still use to tidy up a backyard, stable or workshop, but they look like ancient artefacts compared to the carbon fibre and synthetic fabric brooms you will see at the Winter Olympics.

In fact, things were getting a bit too modern a decade ago, as curlers started to use brooms with abrasive fabric heads. Concerns about this bubbled over during the 2015/16 season in what was rather unimaginatively dubbed the “broomgate” controversy.

“It was making a huge difference,” recalls Muirhead. “Sweepers were almost digging a trench in front of the stone.”

You cannot call yourself an Olympic sport until you have had a doping controversy of some sort, and this one ended when the sport’s governing body told everyone to use a standardised brush, with the same mustard-yellow fabric head.

Sweeping is the broom’s main purpose, but curlers also use them for balance while they push off from the hack, glide forward and release the stone. They also use them to help teammates line up their shots.

The shoes are basically just what Brits call trainers, and Americans sneakers, but one of them, the “slider”, has a teflon sole, while the other, the “gripper,” a rubbery sole. This arrangement enables curlers to glide up and down the sheet on one foot.

Do not assume, though, that this means curlers are natural skaters.

“I’m a terrible skater — most curlers are,” says Muirhead. “I can get around a rink, but I wouldn’t be any better than most people.”

Draws, guards and hammers

The Scots have more than 100 words for rain, so we should not be surprised that there are specific words for almost every imaginable throw in curling. Of these, the most common are “draws,” which are attempts to get close to the button, “guards,” which are stones thrown just short of the rings to block your opponent’s path to the house, and “takeouts,” which are a variety of throws intended to remove your opponent’s stones from play.

As Muirhead explained, the state of the match usually dictates what you are trying to do, and the biggest influence is whether you have the “hammer” or not.

“Don’t ask me why it’s called the hammer — I have no idea,” she continues.

“In curling, last stone advantage is important — it’s a bit like having the serve in tennis. So, having the hammer is that last-stone advantage.

“An ideal scoreboard would be two scoring shots when you’ve got the hammer and then limiting them to only one when they’ve got the hammer, because the hammer flips when someone scores.”

So far so good?

OK, I am now going to confuse you again with a rule that was added to the game in the 1990s to combat a tactic that was ruining the game as a spectacle. The “free guard zone rule” or, more descriptively, “the five-rock rule,” prevents teams from knocking out their opponent’s guards until there are at least five stones in the area just short of the house, three from the team without the hammer, two from the team with the hammer.

Before the rule’s introduction, one team would set a guard and the other team would knock, or peel, it away. Again and again. Games were being decided on who won the coin toss to have the hammer in the last end.

“Now, if you don’t have the hammer, the classic approach is to put out a guard,” explains Muirhead. “They might then come around the guard but we follow by putting out another guard. You might think, ‘Why aren’t you coming into the rings?’ But it’s about patience. You don’t need to make a play in the rings too early.

“Where the perfect positions are for your guards will depend on the ice conditions. The swingier the ice, the closer to the rings you’ll want your guards. But if the ice is straight, you’ll want them higher, or further away from the rings.”

Swingy ice is when the stones are curling more than usual. The opposite is heavy or straight ice. The swingier the ice, the more important sweeping becomes.

“Sweeping helps the stone travel further,” Muirhead continues. “It melts the little droplets on the ice, and that lubricates the surface a little bit, allowing the stone to travel further. It also keeps the stone travelling straighter.

“… It’s mainly the skip who directs (the sweeping). You’ll hear them shouting, ‘Yes, sweep!’ or, ‘Woah!’ And now you’re hearing ‘curl’ and ‘straight’ more often because they’re trying to influence the sideways movement. Across the whole length of a normal shot, you can make seven to eight feet difference in movement.”

With all that brushing, it is inevitable that players occasionally touch the moving stones. This is called “burning” the stone and, like golfers, curlers are meant to call these penalties themselves. A burnt stone is usually removed from play but sometimes the opposing skipper will say it is OK to leave it where it stopped.

You also get accidental touches of stationary stones and, again, it is up to the skipper of the non-offending team to decide if the stone should be left where it is, moved back to where it was or removed.

What makes a champion curler?

We have dealt with curling’s main ingredients. What are those little bits of seasoning that separate the good from the spectacular?

“We do a lot of single-leg drives, squats and deadlifts for explosive power and work on core stability,” says Muirhead. “You’re only throwing 20 stones a game but you’ve got to make them perfect, so consistency is key.

“Technically, it’s a challenging sport. You’ve to make sure everything is in the right position. We’re working with millimetres, so it’s your stone placement, your hips, your shoulders.

“Teamwork is another huge part of it and, as a skip, it is mentally tough. If you make one wrong choice, it can cost you the game. A common mistake is getting a little too aggressive or being complacent.

Muirhead missed her chance to win Team GB a bronze medal in the last end against Japan in South Korea in the 2018 Games but bounced back from that disappointment, and a serious hip injury, in 2022 to claim revenge over the Japanese and gold.

A happy ending for Eve, then, but just the start of our adventure — 147 games, over 19 days, involving 30 teams, with nine medals at stake, starting in Cortina on Wednesday. Let’s curl!

Teams to watch in the Olympics

Mixed doubles

Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner try to continue a remarkable unbeaten streak. They went perfect in winning gold at the 2022 Olympics and the 2025 world championships in their two major tournaments together.

Great Britain’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat were runners-up to Constantini and Mosaner at last year’s worlds. The U.S. team of Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin won gold at the 2023 world championships. Canada’s Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant won silver at the 2019 edition. Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten were second to Constantini and Mosaner at the 2022 Olympics.

Men’s

Brad Jacobs’ team won Canada’s always-competitive trials to return to the Olympics. His squad won gold in 2014, the last Canadian men’s team to do so. Bruce Mouat’s Great Britain team is the reigning world champion, playing then as Scotland. The Swiss team skipped by Benoît Schwarz-van Berkel won silver at those worlds.

Sweden’s Niklis Edin returns the entire defending gold-medalist squad. Danny Casper supplants John Shuster as U.S. skip, the first time since 2002 that Shuster hasn’t been part of an Olympic team.

Women’s

Canada’s Rachel Homan leads the 2025 world champions into the Olympics with gold-medal hopes. It’s Homan’s second Games. Switzerland’s runners-up from that tournament, skipped by Aline Pätz, is in the field. So are China (Wang Rui) and South Korea (Gim Eun-ji), the third- and fourth-place finishers, respectively.

Sophie Jackson now skips the Team GB entry that will defend Muirhead’s Olympic gold. Sweden’s 2022 Olympic bronze medal group returns. Tabitha Peterson returns as U.S. Olympic skip, with a couple new teammates.

Olympic schedule

There are too many games to list, but our new full Olympic schedule interactive page is live and ready for your perusal. The medal-game schedule is below.

Mixed doubles

Bronze: Feb. 10, 2:05 p.m. in Italy, 8:05 a.m. ET

Gold: Feb. 10, 6:05 p.m. in Italy, 12:05 p.m. ET

Men’s

Bronze: Feb. 20, 7:05 p.m. in Italy, 1:05 p.m. ET

Gold: Feb. 21, 7:05 p.m. in Italy, 1:05 p.m. ET

Women’s

Bronze: Feb. 21, 2:05 p.m. in Italy, 8:05 a.m. ET

Gold: Feb. 22, 11:05 a.m. in Italy, 5:05 a.m. ET

How to watch

In the U.S., NBC, CNBC and USA Network will have TV coverage, as well as streaming coverage on Peacock for subscribers. In the UK, TNT Sport and the BBC will have live TV coverage and streaming coverage via Discovery+ and the BBC iPlayer. CBC is Canada’s broadcaster.

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