Jacobs chases second Olympic gold; Homan after first medal

In the world of sports, it is a truism that no matter good you or your team may be, there is always a nemesis lurking in the shadows.

For Brad Jacobs that nemesis is Bruce Mouat.

And it is the role of the great schedule makers to ensure that you shall meet your nemesis in the most important games.

And so it is that Mouat and his Scottish foursome representing Great Britain stand between Jacobs and Team Canada and the Olympic gold medal at Milano Cortina 2026. The two teams won their semifinals on Thursday: Jacobs outdueling Magnus Ramsfjell of Norway 9-5 and Mouat beating undefeated Yannick Schwaller of Switzerland 8-5.

“They’re the No. 1 team in the world for a reason,” Jacobs said of Mouat after the semifinals. “So, [we’re] looking forward to that, another battle against the best team in the world, two heavyweight teams going at it.”

The difference maker, he said, will be to take advantage of whatever opportunities are presented in the game.

They meet Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET in the gold medal game. Canada finished the 10-team round robin in second place at 7-2. Great Britain finished 5-4 and only made the playoffs when Italy lost to first place and then-undefeated Switzerland in the final draw.

On the women’s side, Rachel Homan and Team Canada will be playing Tabitha Peterson of United States for the bronze medal Saturday morning at 8:00 a.m. ET. Homan, third Tracy Fleury, second Emma Miskew and lead Sarah Wilkes will all be seeking their first Olympic medal.

“We’re just gonna go to school tomorrow, nail every single shot and fight for our country,” said Homan, whose team had been the gold medal favourite coming into the Games based on their world No. 1 ranking the last two years. “Obviously disappointed, but our work’s not done here. We’re going to come out fighting tomorrow.”

Peterson won their round robin game 9-8 by scoring a four ender—the biggest end against Homan all week—in the middle of the match and getting two in the tenth.

Jacobs, third Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant and lead Ben Hebert said after their semifinal win that despite the daunting task facing them in Mouat, there’s “nothing this team can’t handle.”

The Jacobs foursome, the oldest team in the tournament, defeated Mouat’s team 9-5 in the round robin. But Mouat still holds a 13-3 record against Jacobs. The Canadian team, particularly Kennedy, didn’t let being the focus of the finger-on-the-granite controversy in the middle of the round robin distract them.

“People don’t really have an idea what the guys had to go through, and [what I] had to go through this week,” Kennedy said after their semifinal win. “To fight through that, to see the light at the end of the tunnel, to fight as hard as we did to get through what we did … it’s a pretty incredible story.”

Now the challenge remains writing the final chapter for this Games, and probably for the Olympic careers of Kennedy, 44, and Hebert, 42, who both won the Olympic gold at Vancouver 2010 as part of the Kevin Martin foursome.

Gallant is the only member of the team without an Olympic gold medal, although he has a bronze as part of the Brad Gushue Beijing 2022 team.

A win here would be Canada’s first curling gold medal since Jacobs won at Sochi 2014.

For his part, Mouat says his No. 1 ranked men’s team in the world the last two years isn’t expecting anything less than an intense struggle against Jacobs.

“It’s going to be a tough game,” he told The Guardian newspaper. “We play Canada a lot. We beat them in the semifinal of the world championships last year and we know it’s going to be a battle. On paper this week they’ve been the second-best team behind Switzerland. So, we know we’ve got to bring the way we played in the last four or five ends [in the semifinal] for all ten ends. We haven’t probably quite had a full A+ ten-end game yet, so it’s time to bring it on Saturday.

“You’ve got to be sharp against these guys, and if you’re not, then you’re going to get punished.”

Statistically there is little difference between the teams this week. Great Britain had a shooting percentage of 86 percent, with Mouat at 85; Canada was at 87 and Jacobs at 86 percent.

As was the case in both semifinals, Sunday’s outcome could well be determined by a missed shot or, probably more likely, another highlight shot by Mouat or Jacobs. Both skips are more than capable.