Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs has secured second place in the 10-team round-robin at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The Canadian rink improved to 7-1 on the week with a big 8-3 victory over Team Joel Retornaz of host Italy on Wednesday.
Even though Jacobs still has one more game in the round-robin against Norway that will take place Friday at 3:05 a.m. ET / 12:05 a.m. PT (CBC Gem, Sportsnet+), the Canadians know they will be in the 2-3 semifinal matchup.
Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller is 8-0 and will finish first.
The Canada-Italy game really fell apart for Italy after a fifth-end flash by Retornaz while attempting to blank the end. Even though the game was tied at 3-3, the Italians couldn’t recover mentally.
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Men’s Olympic curling standings, schedule, results
Team Brad Jacobs will aim to get Canada back on top of the Olympic podium for men’s curling for the first time since 2014 this month in Italy. Follow all the action with Sportsnet.
Italy’s coach Ryan Fry, who won a gold medal with Jacobs in 2014, gave the team a pep talk during the break.
“We can’t do anything about that last shot. Reset right now,” Fry said during the fifth-end break on mics picked up by the broadcast.
Italy couldn’t make a shot in the sixth end and gave up a steal of four to Canada.
Canada stole again in the seventh and Italy had enough, shaking in defeat.
Elsewhere in Draw 11, Great Britain’s Team Bruce Mouat crushed the U.S. 9-2 to finish with a 5-4 record and keep their playoff hopes alive.
Mouat, the reigning world champ, needs one of Norway or Italy to lose in the final draw to reach the semifinals.
Canada’s Team Rachel Homan (4-3) will be on the ice Wednesday at 1:05 p.m. ET / 10:05 a.m. PT (CBC Gem, Sportsnet+) against Italy.