THE opening ceremony for the 2026 Winter Olympics took place last night, but by then the games had already begun with this edition being held in northern Italy, from Milan in the west to Cortina d’Ampezzo in the east.

The opening days saw Olympic curling return to our screens for the first time since the sport’s star turn at the Beijing Games in February 2022, which led to an increase in its popularity.

The 2022 Olympics were still subject to many Covid-related restrictions globally, and curling became a TV highlight in a month that saw the tail end of Covid restrictions in Britain, when many were still working from home.

It’s apt that the curling begins shortly after the end of the World Indoor Bowls Championships in late January, won by Robert Paxton (men’s) and Katherine Rednall (women’s), as there are some similarities between the two sports. You could even consider curling a kind of bowls on ice.

The scoring system is similar, with any stones closer to the centre of the target than your opponents’ nearest counting as a point; each back-and-forth is called an “end” and the arc the curling stones take on the ice is similar to the curl of a biased bowl.

There are also similarities between curling and shuffleboard, but as with many of the Winter Olympic sports that can be compared to others, the fact that they are performed on ice and/or snow makes them more exciting to watch.

Great Britain’s curling team consists solely of Scots and they are one of the best and most successful nations in the sport after Canada and alongside the likes of Sweden and Switzerland.

The majority of the granite used for the impressive-looking curling stones comes from Scotland, too, specifically Ailsa Craig, which provides the granite used for all the rocks used at the Olympics.

The uninhabited island is one of only two sources of the granite used to make curling stones, the other being a quarry near the small Welsh town of Trefor, which is used exclusively by the Canada Curling Stone Co.

The curling continued on Thursday, which also saw the start of the snowboarding and women’s ice hockey, where Hilary Knight has already made the highlight reels in her fifth and what will be her last Olympics, with a great goal for the USA against Czechia.

The men’s ice hockey tournament will see the inclusion of players from North America’s National Hockey League for the first time since 2014.

The NHL is the premier hockey league in the world, alongside Russia’s KHL, and the inclusion of NHL players will raise interest in the tournament.

The NHL didn’t release players for the 2018 and 2022 Winter Olympics due to the disruption this would cause to its season, which is currently approaching 60 games into its 82-game 2025/26 regular season.

Attitudes to international representation have changed since though and there is a sense that releasing these players is an advert for the league and the sport in general.

In February 2025, the NHL hosted a 4 Nations Face-Off tournament featuring its players from Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden, which whetted the appetite for international competition among players and team staff.

The competitive nature of the games further increased the desire for NHL players to test themselves in the Olympics and raised anticipation ahead of the games.

“I knew it wouldn’t be an All-Star Game,” Canada’s assistant coach Pete DeBoer said of the 4 Nations.

“The big dogs had not played best-on-best in so long that there was an underlying current of energy there to play.

“We probably all should have recognised that, probably a little bit more than we did.”

Apart from those from Russia and Belarus, whose players can still play in the NHL but not at the Olympics due to sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the league’s top players will be present at this tournament.

Many of them will be representing Canada, including Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, Cale Makar and 19-year-old San Jose wonderkid Macklin Celebrini.

As a result, Canada are the team tipped to win gold in the men’s tournament, while on the women’s side of things, the USA just about have the edge over Canada when it comes to taking the pre-tournament favourites tag.

Despite the slick nature of many of the sports on show at a Winter Olympics, the first few days in Milan have not gone especially smoothly.

There was a power cut during the opening end of GB’s first appearance in the curling, parts of the ice hockey stadium remained incomplete for the first few days, and heavy snowfall put a halt to an early round of downhill skiing.

“I didn’t mind the lights flicking on and off, it was like a dance and a boogie, or a rave in a nightclub,” said Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat, who was taking part in the curling mixed doubles with Jennifer Dodds.

“We quickly forgot about it because we were so focused on the game, but these things happen. It’s nothing new to us.

“The opening match was amazing. There are people in the stands, which is pretty special after having nobody at the last Olympics because of Covid.

“It is nice to have an atmosphere and play with Jen at the Olympics. We grew up together and love to compete together.”

Mouat and Dodds went on to defeat their Norwegian opponents 8-6, getting Great Britain off to a good start.

After the women’s team won gold in 2022, with the men picking up silver, there will be high hopes for the sport once again in 2026, when it will no doubt continue to entertain TV viewers and become a highlight of the Winter Games once again.