Brad Jacobs refers to the 2014 Winter Olympics as the “hardest bonspiel” he’s ever played in.
The native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., is the last Canadian male skip to capture Olympic gold in four-person curling, doing so alongside teammates Ryan Fry, and EJ and Ryan Harnden in Sochi, Russia.
Team Jacobs went 7-2 in round-robin play at those Olympics before beating Great Britain’s David Murdoch, who now serves as Curling Canada’s high-performance director, 9-3 in the final.
Sochi may have been tough, but 12 years later, Cortina is expected to be even tougher. The 40-year-old veteran skip wouldn’t want it any other way.
“That was when the teams weren’t quite as good as they are now,” Jacobs told reporters ahead of his team’s trip to Milano Cortina 2026. “So, I expect this Olympics to be even more difficult and probably the hardest event that we may ever play in in our lives. And you know what? We wouldn’t want it any other way. Because the harder it is, if you can come through and if you can win, the sweeter victory feels. And I’m looking forward to hopefully having that feeling with my teammates when this Olympics is over.”
The 10-team field set to compete at the 70-year-old Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium is stacked, with a least half the teams – if not more – having a real shot at reaching the podium.
Swedish skip Niklas Edin will play in his fifth straight Olympics in Italy, looking to defend his gold medal from four years ago in Beijing.
Still one of the best in the game, the seven-time world champion hasn’t been quite as dominant for the past few seasons. His Swedish side last won a world championship in 2024 and haven’t captured a Grand Slam title since 2022. They are currently 12th in the world curling rankings.
Edin won his first world championship in 2013 when he defeated Jacobs in the final from Victoria, B.C.
Jacobs knows Edin and company can “flip the switch and all of a sudden become the best team in the world” at a moment’s notice.
“If you were to look at pure results internationally across the board, Niklas Edin probably is the greatest of all time. When you look at the European Championships, the World Championships, he’s got gold, silver, bronze at the Olympics. We have a huge amount of respect for him and the teammates that he’s had over the years,” explained Jacobs. “So, there’s certainly a huge threat and is kind of one of those games that we’re going to circle, I mean, all these games are going to be tough, let’s be real.”
Jacobs is 24-15 all-time against Edin, including winning four straight.
There’s also the world No. 1 Team Bruce Mouat out of Great Britain.
“Those guys are very consistent. That’s a team that I think all teams in the world either have been or should be going to school on, and we certainly have,” said Jacobs. “You know, they’re not scary, and we’re not scared of them by any means.”
The 31-year-old Mouat and his Scottish teammates in third Grant Hardie, second Bobby Lammie and lead Hammy McMillan Jr. have dominated Team Jacobs, alongside other top tier Canadian rinks, in recent years.
Mouat, who settled for the silver at the 2022 Olympics, holds an all-time 12-1 record against Jacobs. Team Mouat defeated Team Jacobs twice at last year’s World Men’s Curling Championship in Moose Jaw, including a 7-4 victory in the semifinal before earning their second gold medal at the event.
The Scots have won eight Grand Slams since the last Olympics, winning six times over the past nine Slams.
Jacobs can’t wait to square off against Mouat in their seventh game of the round robin and possibly again with a medal on the line in the playoffs.
“I think they’re raising the bar in curling. And we’re all kind of chasing that bar,” said Jacobs. “You got to be really precise against those guys. But we’ve seen that they’re beatable. They’re not superhuman. Nobody is in this sport. It’s curling. [We’re] really looking forward to the challenge of facing them on the biggest stage. We played them in Slams. We played them in the Worlds last year. This is not the same. This is a different level. This is a new level.”
Team Jacobs (No. 5 in world) enter the Olympics as the third-highest ranked team in the Olympic field, behind Team Mouat (No. 1) and Switzerland’s Team Yannick Schwaller (No. 2).
Team Daniel Casper of the United States (No. 6), Italy’s Team Joel Retornaz (No. 7), China’s Team Xu Xiaoming (No. 11), Sweden’s Team Edin (No. 12), Norway’s Team Magnus Ramsfjell (No. 14), Germany’s Team Marc Muskatewitz (No. 17) and Team Lukas Klima of Czech Republic (No. 29) round out the field.
Team Jacobs sport a 39-13 record this season with three event victories. Since their triumph at the Canadian Curling Trials in November, Jacobs’ rink lost in the quarter-final round of the Canadian Open Grand Slam in December before missing the playoffs with a 1-4 record at the Players’ Championship in January, the final event of the 2025-26 Slam season.
Jacobs made it clear he has plenty of confidence in his team entering the Olympics and isn’t worried about who is considered the gold-medal favourite among curling pundits.
“Do you think we’re a team who cares about who the favourite is? Or who people think the favourite is? Where do I think we fit? Well, I’ll tell you, after the day I had today at the gym and at that practice, I feel like we fit right at or near the top, which is right where I would expect us to feel like we fit,” Jacobs continued. “I mean, this is a confident group of guys. We work really, really hard. I think it’s the preparation and the things behind the scenes that a lot of people don’t see that bring that confidence to this group.
“Now, having said that, I think that this is a spiel you could play several different weeks and potentially come out with several different winners. I think it’s going to come down to perspective. I think it’s going to come down to who handles pressure the best. I’m just excited to get going with the guys.”
If Jacobs and company come up short in reaching their ultimate goal in Cortina, it won’t be because the lights were too bright, as all four members of the team have Olympic experience.
In addition to Jacobs’ winning gold in 2014, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert stood atop the podium at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 before finishing fourth in 2018 in South Korea. Brett Gallant earned bronze four years ago in Beijing. The squad is rounded out by alternate Tyler Tardi and coach Paul Webster.
It’s safe to say five-time Brier champion Hebert is raring to get going and makes no bones about what they expect of themselves.
“I want to win. We went in 2010…we wanted to win. We went in ‘18…we wanted to win. I’m a pretty nice guy off the ice, but when I get on that ice, I’m a psychopath. I really want to win. That’s what made me successful my whole career, and playing with guys with like-minded, they really want to work hard and we have a goal,” said Hebert. “There’s a time for rec curling and fun and learning and all that stuff. And we’ve done all that our whole life. We’re going there to compete at the highest level that we can and certainly I want to come home with some hardware.”
Team Jacobs begin play at Milano Cortina 2026 on Feb. 11 against Germany’s Team Muskatewitz.
