The curling competition at the 2026 Winter Olympics will feature a total of 30 teams. There will be 10 teams participating in each of the three disciplines: Men's, Women's, and Mixed Doubles. In the Men's and Women's events, each team will consist of 5 athletes, while the Mixed Doubles teams will have 2 athletes each. This means that a total of 120 athletes will be competing across all disciplines.[1]
Summary
Final summary
As the host country of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy will have teams participating in all three disciplines of curling. This marks Italy's second participation in the Women's event, with their previous appearance dating back to the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Qualification to the curling tournaments at the Winter Olympics will be determined through two methods. Nations will qualify teams by earning qualification points from performances at the 2024 and 2025 World Curling Championships. Teams will also qualify through an Olympic qualification event which will be held in December 2025. Seven nations will qualify teams via World Championship qualification points, while two nations will qualify through a qualification event to be held in December 2025. As host nation, Italy qualified teams automatically, thus making a total of ten teams per discipline in the curling tournaments.[2]
In case of a tie in qualification points, the following criteria will be employed to resolve such ties: firstly, preference will be given to the nation that most recently appeared at the World Championship; secondly, if necessary, preference will be given to the nation that performed better at the 2025 World Championship, if that is a tie then whichever nation performed better at the 2024 World Championship will win the tie; and finally, if neither of the first two criteria suffice, a playoff will be arranged between the tied teams at a time and venue determined by World Curling.[2]
Qualification points
The qualification points are allotted based on the nations' final rankings at the Men's and Women's World Championships. The points are distributed as follows:
Final rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Points
15
13
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
The qualification points are allotted based on the nations' final rankings at the Mixed Doubles World Championships. The points are distributed as follows:
Final rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Points
27
23
20
18
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
Note: Scotland, England and Wales all compete separately in international curling. By an agreement between the curling federations of those three home nations, only Scotland can score Olympic qualification points on behalf of Great Britain.
Qualification events
In order to qualify for the Olympic Qualification Event in the Men's and Women's disciplines, a nation must be ranked between 9th and 13th (or between 8th and 12th if Italy is not ranked in the top 8 teams of the discipline) based on the combined results of the 2024 and 2025 World Curling Championships. Alternatively, they can qualify by finishing in the top 3 at the Pre-Olympic Qualification Event. To be eligible for the Pre-Olympic Qualification Event, a nation must not have already qualified for the Olympics or the Olympic Qualification Event. They must have also qualified for either the 2024 or 2025 World Men's or Women's Championships, or have qualified in the A division of the 2024 or 2025 European Curling Championship or Pan Continental Curling Championships.[2]
Note: Scotland, England and Wales compete separately at international level in curling. By an agreement between the curling federations of those three nations, only Scotland can score Olympic qualification points on behalf of Great Britain.
