Winter Paralympics 2026: Great Britain slips to fourth straight loss in mixed team event in wheelchair curling

Great Britain fell to a fourth successive defeat in the mixed team event in wheelchair curling at the Winter Paralympics and remain in second place in the standings as a result of an 8-6 loss to Italy.

Only the top four teams out of the ten nations competing in Cortina will qualify for the semi-finals, and the latest defeat for the British team means the best they can achieve in the quarter-final stage is four wins – a tally four teams have already reached.

For the second time in the competition, Great Britain switched their foursome during the match. With the home team trailing 5-3 at the halfway stage, substitute Graeme Stewart replaced Austin McKenzie.

The decisive moment came in the sixth end when Italian skipper Egidio Marchese threw a brilliant final stone into a packed stadium to score three goals, giving his team an 8-5 lead with two goals remaining.

Great Britain could not find their way back, leaving them with a record of one win and five losses in six matches.

They have three matches left to play, two of which are on Wednesday, against defending Paralympic champions China (08:05 GMT) and Latvia (19:05).

“We’ll do our best,” skip Hugh Niblo said.

“We’ve let go of the pressure now.

“There are positives. We were not destroyed like other teams.

“It’s an inexperienced team and some of these guys have more Paralympics under them, so let’s see what it feels like to win again.”

British pair Joe Butterfield and Jason Kane failed on Monday to qualify for the mixed doubles semi-finals.