The Great Britain wheelchair curling mixed team suffered a 9-4 defeat to China, marking their sixth loss in seven matches at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics. Their slim hopes of reaching the semi-finals ended earlier in the week following a loss to Italy. Despite a competitive performance in the early ends, errors in the seventh end sealed the result against the two-time defending champions.
The Great Britain wheelchair curling mixed team's campaign at the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics has been challenging, with a 9-4 loss to China on Wednesday continuing their struggles. This defeat came after their hopes of qualifying for the semi-finals vanished on Tuesday, when a 8-6 loss to hosts Italy, combined with China's victory over Latvia, eliminated them from knockout contention.
China, who have just one loss in the round-robin phase and are the two-time defending champions, took an early 3-0 lead after the first end. Great Britain leveled the score after three ends and restricted China to one point in the fourth. Stewart Pimblett's accurate shot tied the match again in the fifth end, but GB failed to capitalize on a chance to steal in the sixth, allowing China to pull ahead 6-4.
The turning point came in the seventh end, where GB held the last stone advantage but needed two points to draw level. Shot-making and judgment errors enabled China to steal three points, securing the 9-4 victory and prompting an early end to the match.
"With that last stone [of the seventh end], I was three-hundredths of a second away from making the shot," said Stewart Pimblett. "If you get a stopwatch and try and stop on three-hundredths of a second, it is hard to do so. It is a bit heartbreaking. I am proud of what myself and the team have done here because we have gone hit-for-hit with the best teams in the world, and we just haven't got over the line."
GB skip Hugh Nibloe reflected on the tournament, noting the team's competitiveness despite the results. "With the last two games, we are going to look to win them and try and end on a bit of a high," he said. "I think we have got the results we have deserved, but at the same time, we have played well at times, and individually, people have had good games and things like that. It would be great if we could string a whole team performance together because we are not a million miles away but are still a mile or two away. It would be good to try and finish with two wins, and that would be a fairer reflection of how we have played."
The team faces Latvia at 18:05 on Wednesday and Norway on Thursday in their remaining round-robin games.
