how does scoring work in olympic curling

In Olympic curling, you score by having your stones closer to the center of the target than your opponent’s stones at the end of each round, called an “end.”

What counts as scoring?

• The scoring area is the circular target painted on the ice, called the house.

• The very middle of the house is the button (or tee).

• Only stones that are at least touching the house (within about 6 feet of the button) can possibly score. Stones completely outside the circles are worth zero.

Think of the house like a dartboard on ice: only stones on the board can matter for points.

How points are counted each end

Each game is split into 10 ends in the men’s and women’s Olympic events, and 8 ends in mixed doubles.

For every end:

1. Each team delivers its stones (8 stones per team in team events, 5 per team in mixed doubles).

2. When all stones have stopped, you look at which stone is closest to the button. That team is the only team that can score that end.

3. Start counting from that closest stone outward toward the edge of the house.

4. You count how many stones of the scoring team are closer to the button than the opponent’s nearest stone. Each of those stones is worth 1 point.

5. As soon as you reach a stone of the other team, you stop counting.

If neither team has a stone touching the house at the end, no one scores that end (it’s a blank end).

Simple examples

• If Team A has the closest stone, and Team B’s closest stone is the second closest overall, Team A scores 1 point.

• If Team A has the first, second, and third closest stones, and Team B’s best stone is fourth closest, Team A scores 3 points.

• If all stones end up outside the house, the score for that end is 0–0.

Hammer: the last-shot advantage

• The team throwing the last stone in an end is said to have the hammer.

• Having the hammer is a big advantage, because you get the final chance to place or knock stones to take or increase your score.

• Before a game, a pre-game draw-to-the-button (players throw practice stones and measure the distance) decides who gets the hammer first.

• After that:
  • The team that scores in an end gives up the hammer for the next end.

* The team that **does not score** gets the hammer next end.

* In men’s and women’s events, if an end is scoreless (a blank end), the team that had the hammer keeps it.

This is why teams sometimes intentionally blank an end: they’d rather keep hammer for a better scoring opportunity later.

Special terms you’ll hear

• End – like an inning in baseball; a unit of play where all stones are thrown.

• House – the painted circles that form the scoring zone.

• Button / tee – the exact center of the house.

• Shot rock – the stone currently closest to the button during an end.

• Counting stones – stones that currently would score if the end ended right now.

• Hammer – the last stone of the end, a key strategic advantage.

• Steal – when the team without hammer scores points in an end.

• Blank end – no team scores; in many Olympic formats, the hammer stays with the team that already had it.

How you win the match

• After all scheduled ends (10 for team events, 8 for mixed doubles), the team with the higher total score wins.

• If the score is tied, extra ends are played until one team wins an end.

Because of this, strategy is not just “score whenever you can,” but often “try to score multiple points when you have hammer, and limit the other team to a single point or steal nothing when they have hammer.”

Quick example to watch a live game

Imagine you’re watching an Olympic game and the overhead camera shows the house at the end of an end:

• You see three yellow stones closest to the button, then a red stone just outside them, and a couple more stones further out.

• Yellow has the stone closest to the button, so Yellow is the only team that can score.

• Count yellow stones from the button outward until you hit a red stone: Yellow 1, Yellow 2, Yellow 3, then Red.

• Yellow scores 3 points for that end.

• Next end, Red gets the hammer, because Yellow just scored.

Forum-style take: the “like I’m five” version

Think of the house like a pizza.
Whoever has the slice closest to the middle gets all the points that round.
Start at the middle slice and count outward: as long as the slices are the same color, that team gets 1 point per slice.
As soon as you hit the other team’s slice, stop counting. That’s the score for that round.

SEO-style bits (for your post)

• Core focus phrase: how does scoring work in Olympic curling is answered by “only one team scores per end, gaining 1 point for every stone closer to the button than the opponent’s nearest stone.”

• Recent context: With curling prominent again in the 2026 Winter Games, many new viewers are asking this exact question across forums and social feeds.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.