Curling dates to the 1700s and was among the handful of sports at the first Winter Olympics in 1924.
It didn't return until the 1998 Games with both men's and women's competition. It has grown in popularity and size: Curling will be the first sport to open competition, two days before the opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Games in February.
In a curling match, two teams compete to see which can get the most granite stones closest to a bullseye target called the tee by sliding it on a narrow sheet of ice. The distance between where a player must release the stone and the tee at the other end is about 93 feet (28 meters). The sheet is only 5 meters or 16.4 feet wide and it shares stones for each team every round so it gets crowded.
Each round, for up to 10 rounds, teams have eight chances to slide the specialized 44-pound (20 kg) stones toward the tee. They can aim directly for the center, try to knock their opponents’ stones away or nudge their own stones closer to the target. Strategies include blocking and takeouts.
Each throw involves all four teammates. One slides the stone, using a handle to make it curl, while others sweep the ice as the stone moves, altering its speed and direction. Team captains, called skips, advise on strategy. Whichever team gets consistently closest to the target wins the match.
Terms to know; The house (the overall scoring area, centered by the tee); Ends, which are similar to an inning in baseball in that each team shoots eight rocks (two per person) or 16 total; the hammer, or the last stone of an end; the hog line, which is when a player must release their stone (21 feet from the tee); and pebbling, the droplets of ice on the sheet that impact the speed of the stone.
Canadian Brad Jacobs is making his second Olympic appearance after leading Canada to gold at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi. Standout Bruce Mouat of the United Kingdom will compete in two events in Cortina, mixed doubles and the men's championship.
The Swedes are the defending Olympic men’s champion. On the women’s side, the U.K. is the defending women’s champion but Sweden and Canada are among the favorites.
The U.S. will be represented in all three curling disciplines. Daniel Casper will lead the men's team, Tabitha Peterson the women's and Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin will be in mixed doubles.
All matches will take place at the Cortina curling stadium, with competition beginning Feb. 4. The mixed doubles final is Feb. 10, men's semifinals Feb. 19 and the final Feb. 21 while the women's semis are Feb. 20 and the final Feb. 22.
The Canadian men had won gold for three straight Olympics (2006, 2010 and 2014) before the Americans led by skip John Shuster grabbed headlines by upsetting Sweden to win the U.S. its first Olympic gold in curling.
Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner won mixed doubles in 2022, giving Italy its first Olympic curling championship. Constantini is from Cortina, so she and Mosaner will draw huge crowds as they try to win gold at home.
An average curling match takes three hours, according to World Curling. Mixed doubles at Cortina will see two married couples and one sibling team face off. Canadian couple Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant will compete against Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann of Switzerland. Swedish siblings Rasmus Wranå and Isabella Wranå will also compete as a team.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
FILE - Rachel Homan, right, throws a rock during Canadian Olympic curling trials action against Team Brown in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his actions during the Capitol riot five years ago, joked about being liberal-minded to win the votes of transgender people and mocked a predecessor's use of a wheelchair while delivering a meandering speech to House Republicans as the party enters a critical election year facing a razor-thin majority in the House.
The remarks were intended to ensure both the GOP's executive and legislative wings are aligned on their agenda heading into the November midterms that will determine party control of Congress. But Trump spent more time airing rehashing past grievances during the lengthy appearance than he did talking about the capture of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro or specific steps he's taking to bring down prices with polls showing inflation as the public's top concern.
He also did not discuss new policy initiatives or legislation on his agenda for the year.
“We won every swing state. We won the popular vote by millions. We won everything," Trump said, recounting his performance in the 2024 presidential election while seeming to acknowledge that history will side with the Democratic Party in November.
"But they say that when you win the presidency, you lose the midterm,” he said.
Political trends show that the party that wins the White House usually loses seats in Congress during the midterm elections two years later.
But Trump did try to rally the caucus at times, asserting that his first year back in office was so successful that Republicans should win in November on that basis alone. He briefly touched on Venezuela, talked about money coming into the U.S. through tariffs and direct investment, and negotiations to bring down drug prices.
“You have so many good nuggets. You have to use them. If you can sell them, we're going to win,” Trump said. He claimed that, “We've had the most successful first year of any president in history and it should be a positive.”
The House GOP is facing a sudden narrowing of their already thin majority with the death of California Rep. Doug LaMalfa, announced Tuesday, and the resignation of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, which took effect at midnight.
“You can't be tough when you have a majority of three, and now, sadly, a little bit less than that," Trump said after paying tribute to LaMalfa, noting the challenges House Speaker Mike Johnson faces in keeping their ranks unified.
The president also noted that Rep. Jim Baird, R-Wis., was recovering after a “bad” car accident, further slimming Johnson's vote margins.
House Republicans convened as they launch their new year agenda, with health care issues in particular dogging the GOP heading into the midterm elections. Votes on extending expired health insurance subsidies are expected as soon as this week, and it’s unclear whether the president and the party will try to block its passage.
Trump said he would be meeting soon with 14 companies to discuss health insurance.
In remarks that approached 90 minutes, Trump also mused about unconstitutionally seeking a third term as president. He claimed it was never reported that he urged his supporters to walk “peacefully and patriotically” on Jan. 6, 2021, to the Capitol, where they rioted to try to overturn his election loss. He used his wife, first lady Melania Trump, to poke at Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat who used a wheelchair.
According to the president, she thinks the dancing he does at his rallies is not presidential.
“She actually said, ‘Could you imagine FDR dancing?’ She actually said that to me," Trump said. "And I said there’s a long history that perhaps she doesn’t know.”
GOP lawmakers were hosting a daylong policy forum at the Kennedy Center, where the board, stocked by Trump with loyalists, recently voted to rename it the Trump Kennedy Center. The move is being challenged in court.
Trump and Johnson are trying to corral Republican lawmakers at a time when when rank-and-file lawmakers have felt increasingly emboldened enough to buck Trump and the leadership’s wishes, on issues such as the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The meeting also comes days after the Trump administration’s dramatic capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela, which occurred after a monthslong U.S. campaign to pressure the now-deposed leader by building up American forces in the waters off South America and bombing boats alleged to have been carrying drugs.
The Maduro capture is reigniting the debate about Trump’s powers over Congress to authorize the campaign against Venezuela, though House Republican lawmakers have largely been supportive of the administration’s efforts there.
AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro and Associated Press writer Will Weissert contributed to this report.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson attends an annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump arrives at an annual policy retreat, Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump listens to a question during a news conference at Mar-a-Lago, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2026, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
