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Team USA Women’s Curling Achieves Olympic First in Thrilling Win Over Canada

Tabitha Peterson and Team USA secured an upset win over Team Canada in their round robin match against Team Canada at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
Tabitha Peterson and Team USA secured an upset win over Team Canada in their round robin match against Team Canada at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. | Team USA, Olympics women’s curling, Milan Cortina Olympics

Team USA defeated Team Canada, 9-8, on the second day of women’s curling round robin action at the Milan Cortina Games on Friday. It marks the first time that the American women have beaten the Canadians at the Olympics.

The Americans were led by three-time Olympian Tabitha Peterson, who helped Team USA clinch the stunning upset victory in the 10th and final end, in part due to Canada’s inability to take advantage of the Americans’ mistakes. Down one with the hammer in the 10th end, Peterson was able to make an open draw for a deuce and the underdog win. With the result, the Americans improved to 2-1 while the Canadians fell to 1-1 in round robin play.

The rest of the four-woman American team includes Cory Thiesse, who won a silver medal in mixed doubles curing with Korey Dropkin, Tabitha’s sister Tara Peterson and Taylor Anderson-Heide.

Over on Canada’s side, three-time Olympian Rachel Homan leads her team, which entered the Games as the two-time defending world champions. However, Homan and her compatriots couldn’t seem to learn the ice during their match against the Americans and paid the price with several missed hits and line calls.

The Canadians are hoping to return to the podium in Milan, though they haven’t won a women’s curling medal since 2014.

Team USA will continue round robin play with a match against Japan on Saturday.


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Kristen Wong
KRISTEN WONG

Kristen Wong is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. She has been a sports journalist since 2020. Before joining SI in November 2023, Wong covered four NFL teams as an associate editor with the FanSided NFL Network and worked as a staff writer for the brand’s flagship site. Outside of work, she has dreams of running her own sporty dive bar.

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