It bodes well for Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds that they conquered the world and Olympic champions to seal their spot at the top of the curling mixed doubles rankings.
The duo swept Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner aside 9-6 in a convincing end to their round robin exploits and secured themselves as the number one team with eight wins from nine games in Cortina.
Mouat and Dodds were handed their first defeat by the hands of Switzerland on Sunday afternoon in a tense 7-6 battle.
Italy do not just have eyes thrust upon them as the host country, but as reigning Olympic and world champions, the pressure is a large as the Dolomites they are playing at the foot of.
And for Constantini, it also means playing in the town she grew up in, born and raised in Cortina d’Ampezzo herself.
The Italian duo won every game on their way to Olympic and world gold but even with the crowd on their side, Mouat and Dodds silenced the Italian roars on Sunday night.
“That was an amazing game tonight,” said Dodds. “The crowd was amazing and we always knew it was almost going to be a third player for them and they didn’t disappoint. I love playing in these environments and coming out with a win makes it even more special.
“We knew when it came into the second half that it would be a battle of the power plays and we just controlled ours really well and put them under a lot of pressure. We got a few misses from them in theirs to help.”
Victory means that Mouat and Dodds will hold the privilege of the deadly ‘hammer’ going into the playoffs, a tactic so crucial in the shorter and faster paced format of mixed doubles that it can control the entire game.
Mouat and Dodds will face a wait to find out who they will go toe-to-toe the semi-finals at 4.05pm UK time, with a final session of games still to be played, but one crucial question does remain: will they be playing for gold or bronze?
“We are exactly where we want to be going into the semi-finals at the top of the table and we know that we just need to rest and recover now before tomorrow’s final,” said Dodds.
“We take confidence from it and we want to play with the hammer which we had been saying all week,” added Mouat.
“I now want to play Switzerland again because we can beat them this time. But whoever we get, we will be happy and we’ll be playing well tomorrow.”
Four years ago, Mouat and Dodds walked into the Beijing Ice Cube as world champions and the ones-to-watch as the mixed doubles event made it’s Olympic debut.
And it was all going relatively smoothly until the knockout stages saw them edged out by Norway in a tense thriller in the semi-finals.
What followed in the bronze medal match was a moment to forget for the childhood best friends as they fell to a devastating 9-3 loss against Sweden and were forced to concede after just six ends.
But with eight wins and the all-important hammer now to their name going into the final stages, Milano Cortina 2026 is the time for remedy, and Monday will be the decider.
TNT Sports on discovery+ will be the go-to destination in the U.K to watch everything of Milano Cortina 2026 live all in one place, with over 850 hours of action from every sport, venue, and medal event.
