CORTINA, ITALY — Steve Emt and Laura Dwyer came within a single shot of making history Wednesday at the 2026 Winter Paralympics.

For eight ends and one more beyond that, the American pair traded momentum with Latvia before falling 11–10 in an extra end in the bronze medal game at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. The result left the United States just short of its first Paralympic medal in wheelchair curling.

“This one’s going to hurt for a while,” Emt said. “It was a heavyweight fight. We just went nine rounds with world champions from a couple years ago.”

The bronze medal game carried added significance from the opening stone. The 2026 Winter Paralympics marked the first time mixed doubles wheelchair curling appeared on the Paralympic program, placing Emt and Dwyer in the discipline’s inaugural medal round.

For the United States, the opportunity also represented a chance to reach a milestone the program has chased for more than a decade. The Americans’ previous best Paralympic finish came at the 2010 Vancouver Games, when the mixed team placed fourth.

On Wednesday, the U.S. pair came within a single shot of surpassing that mark.

A Game Of Big Swings

The bronze medal match unfolded with the kind of rapid momentum swings typical of mixed doubles curling, played in front of an energetic crowd that reacted to nearly every shot as the teams traded control.

The United States opened with a strong first end, scoring four with last-stone advantage to jump ahead early.

Latvia answered immediately in the second end, using its power play to score five and move in front 5–4.

The teams traded pressure through the middle ends before the Americans produced one of their biggest moments late in the match.

Using their power play in the seventh end, Dwyer delivered a draw into the house that allowed the United States to score three and reclaim the lead at 9–7, drawing a loud reaction from the crowd inside the arena.

“It was an emotional as a rollercoaster,” Emt said.

Latvia responded quickly in the eighth end. With the hammer, the Latvian side drew into the house to extend the game.

Loud chants of “USA” filled the arena before the extra end as both teams traded shots, urging their stones  and reacting with fist pumps and claps. 

Latvia slide between two American guards and rolled neatly onto the button with their sixth stone. The American duo’s final stone barely nudged the Latvian rock, sealing the bronze medal for Latvia and the country’s first-ever Winter Paralympic medal.

Landmark Day For The Sport

The dramatic bronze medal game was not the only one that required extra stones.

On the adjacent sheet at the same time, the gold medal match also went to an extra end, where China defeated the Republic of Korea 9–7 to claim the first Paralympic mixed doubles wheelchair curling title, with Korea earning silver.

The tight finishes underscored how competitive the sport’s Paralympic debut proved to be.

A Long Road For Emt

For Emt, the moment marked another chapter in a journey that began more than a decade ago.

The Connecticut native took up wheelchair curling in 2013 after a car accident left him paralyzed. Over the years he became a fixture on the U.S. national team, competing at world championships and representing the United States on the Paralympic stage.

Cortina marked Emt’s third Paralympic Games, though his first competing in the mixed doubles format.

Head coach Pete Annis said Emt’s longevity in the sport made the moment especially meaningful.

“Steve has been around this program for a long time,” Annis said. “To see him competing in the first Paralympic mixed doubles event and fighting for a medal says a lot about the work he’s put in over the years.”

Dwyer’s Paralympic Debut In A Debut Sport

For Dwyer, the Games represented a milestone of a different kind.

The Minnesota curler competed in her first Paralympics, after previously serving as the first female alternate for the U.S. mixed team at the Beijing 2022 Games.

“There’s a lot of family and friends, and I know they’re quite proud of me and us and our performance,” Dwyer said. “But it still hurts. It feels like this close,” she said as she gestured.

“Like that’s the crazy thing about curling — just an inch. I feel bad for them because they put so much time into it,” echoed Annis.

For Emt and Dwyer, the result was a narrow miss in a milestone moment for the sport. In the first Paralympic mixed doubles wheelchair curling tournament, the Americans pushed the eventual medalists to the limit — a reminder of how close the program came to its first trip to the Paralympic podium.