Team Homan snaps three-game losing streak in women’s curling

With their Olympic medal hopes on the line, Rachel Homan and Team Canada brought their A game Monday morning in a decisive 10-5 win over China at Milano Cortina 2026.

It did, however, take a few ends for Canada to find their game that had been missing in the three straight losses that put them in danger of missing the four-team playoff. Rui Wang and her China teammates built a 2-0 lead by blanking the first end, scoring one in the second and stealing another one in the third.

Then Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes came to life scoring four in the fourth end and three in the sixth. Wilkes, who shot 96 percent the game, and Miskew, 83 percent, set the house with well-placed guards and draws. Fleury and Homan, who had been struggling in the earlier losses, took advantage of the situation presented them to score four and take control of the critical game.

Homan, who shot her personal best here, 85 percent, executed a delicate raise with her first stone and upweight double with her second to give Canada the score.

“Fantastic shots by Rachel,” Wilkes said of her skip’s shots, particularly in the fourth and sixth ends. “Gets your adrenaline going and fuels you into the next end.”

In the sixth, China had two counters behind guards until Homan, one of the best take-out shooters in the game, doubled out both of those. A simple takeout with her second stone gave Canada the three and a comfortable 7-3 lead.

“I feel like we’ve been doing a lot of really good things the last couple of games,” Wilkes said of the victory and the team’s attitude. “We wanted to just continue doing what we were doing, staying with our process.

“Yeah the results weren’t what we wanted earlier, but I think we just continued doing what we were doing and it felt good to come out on top today.”

The victory moved Canada into a three-way tie for sixth place, at 2-3, with China and Great Britain. Homan was scheduled to play Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura (1-4) in the evening.

The game went on without any rocks being questioned, unlike the case a game earlier when Homan had her first rock of the game pulled when an umpire called her for double touching the stone. Following a controversy in a men’s game between Canada and Sweden two days earlier, the World Curling Federation said umpires would be stationed at the hog lines to watch for the infractions, but only if a team requested it.

China did that but the move didn’t bother the Canadian players.

“They have every right to do that,” Homan told the media. “That’s not part of our game. You go over the hog line, we don’t care. We’re in our game, we’re focused on our game.”

Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg remained atop the standings, unbeaten at 6-0 after a 6-4 win over Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni. Great Britain’s Sophie Jackson (2-3) beat Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont 7-2.

The United States (Tabitha Peterson) is second at 4-1 followed by Switzerland and Korea (Gim Eun-ji) 3-2, Denmark 3-3, Canada, China and Great Britain 2-3, Japan 1-4 and Italy (Stefania Constantini) 0-5.

The top four teams at the end of round-robin play Thursday afternoon will advance to the semifinals on Friday. Medal games are scheduled for the weekend.