A Scottish team will go into the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics as the reigning world champion in men's curling. No men from the sport's birthplace have won Olympic curling gold since 1924.
A team skipped by Bruce Mouat won 5-4 over the Swiss in the world championship final in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on Sunday.
Mouat's team, ranked fifth after round-robin play, became the first to win a men's world title having to go through the qualification playoffs since that round was added in 2018. Previously, the top four teams from round-robin made the playoffs.
In their three playoff games, the Scots defeated Niklas Edin and Sweden in a rematch of the 2022 Olympic final, and then 2014 Olympic gold medalist Brad Jacobs and Canada before beating Yannick Schwaller's Switzerland.
Mouat, 30, already skipped teams to Olympic silver in 2022 and a world title in 2023. This is the first time a men's team from Scotland, the sport's birthplace, will go into the Olympics as reigning world champion since 2010.
The only time a Scottish team (competing for Great Britain) won the Olympic men's title was at the first Winter Games in Chamonix, France, in 1924. The sport then went 74 years before it returned to the official Olympic program starting in 1998.
In the women's event, British teams of Scottish curlers won Olympic gold in 2002 and 2022.
Earlier at men's worlds, the U.S. team skipped by Korey Dropkin finished 11th out of 13 after going 4-8 in round-robin play. The U.S. missed qualifying an Olympic quota spot for 2026 by one spot, but can still earn a place in Milan Cortina at a last-chance qualifier in December.
The team that wins the Olympic Trials in November will go to the last-chance qualifier in Kelowna, British Columbia, where the last two Olympic spots will be filled.
Dropkin heads later this month to Fredericton, New Brunswick, for the world championship in mixed doubles. Dropkin and partner Cory Thiesse won that world title in 2023 and can clinch an Olympic spot for themselves at these worlds.
