Winter Olympics 2026 day four: Sweden v USA in curling final and luge gold up for grabs – live | Winter Olympics 2026
Key events
Luge: Delightful response from Yulianna Tunytska: third to race, goes top of the three so far though, with a very fast time. The Ukrainian racer is absolutely beaming. Not going to win today, but so happy to have made the final 20 here and to have competed with the best in the world.
Luge: Final round of the women’s singles! This is where the medal will be decided. Their fourth run, and the times are all added together, so you need more than just one blazing run to win this event. Consistency is key. The race order of the 20 lugers today goes from slowest to fastest times after their first three rounds, so the main contenders will be last.
Figure skating: The men’s single short program is about to begin, the first round before the free program to follow. We’ll keep an eye on that over the next little while.
Curling: What a shot from Isabella Wranaa, with last stone in this end, and her brother barely even needs the broom as a perfectly weighted delivery nestles up against the other red rock at the centre of the house. Two for Sweden, 2-1 up.
Curling: Cat and mouse with the Swedes trying to build a wall, the Americans knocking bits of out, but shooting last, eventually with a cannon from one stone to another, they knock traffic around a busy house such that the USA team emerges with the first point of the encounter.
Curling: We are away. I love that creepy little squatting move that they do when they first send a stone down the ice, looking like a supernatural bird trying to hatch life from that stone egg. The nature of Monkey was irrepressible. The Swedish feller, Rasmus Wranaa, does a particularly impassive magic-mother-hen move.
Geoff Lemon
Thanks Daniel. Hello, you. Are you ready to curl? I was born to curl.
So I’m going to leave you with Geoff Lemon, who’ll chill with you until the close. Peace out, people.
We’re five minutes away from the gold-medal match in the curling mixed doubles, USA v Sweden. It should be a belter.
In the ice hockey, Germany have equalised against Italy. It’s 1-1 with 6.30 left in the second.
Dolour is a great word. Capello, Andy Bull.
Run three of the luge is over and Julia Taubitz of Germany is a merely poor run away from gold; the other medals could go anywhere. But spare a thought for poor Merle Frabel, who made a terrible error which has cost her a medal.
In the hockey, Italy have scored, leading Germany 1-0 with 18.30 to go in the second.
“Why does Mikaela Shiffrin always struggle in the Winter Olympics?” wonders Kurt Perleberg.
I’m afraid I’ve not a clue, but two gold medals isn’t terrible; let’s see what happens in the slalom and giant slalom.
With the potential medal contenders finished in round three of the luge, it’s time to look forward.
At 5.05pm, we’ve got the final of the curling mixed doubles, USA taking on Sweden; at 5.34pm, it’s the final run of our luge; at 7pm, the final round of the mixed team, normal hill ski jumping; and at 7.10, Canada meet USA in the women’s ice hockey, the match a probably gold-medal match rehearsal.
Now Fischnaller of USA goes and throws everything at it She moves up to fifth, and is in with a shout of a medal.
Back with the ice hockey, it’s Italy 0-0 Germany with 15s to go in the first period.
Gosh, now Farquharson of USA zooms past Frabel … and Hofer, into the bronze-medal position. And, once Robatscher and Schulte have been, Frabel is seventh. She’ll be feeling extremely poorly.
Hofer of Italy goes next, takes a risk at the start, it almost ruins her, but she keeps going, just, ands her time of 52.977 takes her past Frabel into third.
That kind of thing, we’re told, might happen once in a World Cup season and, as we watch a replay, the German coaching team have heads in hands. Frabel will take this regret to her grave and, as I type, Bota of Latvia records her slowest run so far, 52.939, but still moves second.
Here she goes and from the start down the ramp, she makes a terrible error, going up into the wall, then into the one on the other side! That will surely cost her any chance at gold! Gosh, she looks haunted as she finishes, her time of 54.144 1.475s slower than Taubitz, whose choice to play it safe looks a wise one now. She has the gold in her hand; the battle for silver in on.
Taubitz goes first and she’s pelting down the track but, on fresh ice, she plays it pretty safe, recording her slowest time of 52.730. What has Frabel got for her?
This is our top 10 after two runs:
It’ll take something for oner of the top two to avoid taking gold; there’s a battle for that, then a battle for bronze.
Anyroad up, it’s 0-0 with 10 to go in the first; elsewhere, we’re four minutes away from the resumption of the women’s luge singles.
I should say, currently Italy lead Germany by a point, so if this match is a draw they’ll finish higher and take on second place in Group A.
Both teams are already into the last eight, but the winner will avoid the winner of Group A – though you’d not back either to even run USA or Canada, the two teams in contention, close.
We’re under way in our Italy v Germany Group B women’s ice hockey…
Goodness me.
The medal table is currently led by … Norway.
We’ll see how it goes, but given how well the men’s football team are doing – the women’s side were always good – Norwegian sport is enjoying something of a moment.
I think they enjoyed the moment.
I’ve just rewatched Austria’s gold in the team combined; leading with Mikaela Shiffrin to come, she and Breezy Johnson looked great, impregnable almost. What an effort from Radler and Huber to beat them.
I mean a gold’s a gold, right? Is the medals breaking anything more than quite funny?
What a feeling this must be.
So, in the meantime, get a load of these.
That’s it with the live sport until 3.40pm, when Italy meet Germany in Group B of the women’s ice hockey. Then after than, at 4pm, we’ve run three of the women’s single luge – four, the last, is at 5.34pm – and at 5.05pm Sweden face USA in the mixed doubles curling gold-medal match.
Ultimately, they played really well today, but Constantini was just too good.
The GB lads are as disappointed as you’d expect; having come fourth in Beijing, they hoped to go one better here and started so well, only to no-show yesterday. “So close but yet so far, same as last time really,” offers Dodds, saying she doesn’t “want to ugly cry,” so she’ll stop there.
Mouat, taking over, is also tearful, saying it’s rough but they played so much better than for years ago. They’re both resilient people and spoke last night saying how lucky there are to play at the Olympics with your best mate. They grew up curling together with no idea how far they could take it, enough to send Dodds, and their relationship is really affirming.
Back to Dodds, she thanks the National Lottery for it’s financial support, and off they go; both won silver in the team at Beijing, neither are finished here yet.
The home crowd greet their bronze medalists. It’s not the gold they wanted, having taken it last Games, but they enjoy the moment nonetheless.
Italy win bronze in the mixed doubles curling, beating Great Britain 5-3
The stone is barely out of Constantini’s hand ad the crowd are whooping – it’s perfect, and no more than she deserves as the best player on the ice.
Mosaner isn’t having a great time out there and another poor stone allows GB to calculate how they might steal this end. Dodds hits the button, but if Constantini knocks it out of the road, the bronze is Italy’s. The way she’s been playing, you can’t back against her.
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