Ewan MacDonald moved within two matches of making Olympic curling gold a family affair after Great Britain's men effectively sealed their semi-final place at Pinerolo.
A long final stone by Switzerland skip Ralph Stoeckli handed Britain a thrilling 6-5 victory and a sixth win from seven round-robin matches so far should be enough to reach the last four.
MacDonald has plenty of experience of Olympic medal matches having sweated through wife Fiona's women's final along with six million others in Salt Lake City four years ago.
This year Fiona is back at home in Inverness following the MacDonald Olympic challenge on television along with the couple's two-year-old son Jake.
MacDonald said: "It would be nice to follow in Fiona's footsteps because it is everybody's dream to come home with Olympic gold and she has been behind us all the way.
"As they proved last time, what counts is having five players who are really strong and able to pull for each other in an Olympic Games, and that is what we are doing at the moment."
The British team showed great character in hitting back from a 5-3 deficit at the end of the eighth end after captain David Murdoch sent an attempted double take-out through the middle of two Swiss stones.
Even a two-shot recovery in the ninth handed the Swiss the crucial final stone in the decisive end, but some final build-up play by the Britons forced Stoeckli's marginal error.
Murdoch said: "I was unfortunate with my last rock in the eighth end and if I threw that stone 100 times it would never go through the middle of their stones like it did."
MacDonald's own Olympic memories do not yet match those of his wife, as he was part of the men's team in Salt Lake City which was beset by in-fighting and made an acrimonious early exit.
He added: "There were other things going on last time round and you learn from things like that, and this time we are all together and focused on what we have to do.
"All the guys here get on great and pull hard for each other and you can see that in the results we are getting. We are thriving on the pressure because this is where we want to be."
The British men have two more round-robin matches remaining in which their likely ambition will be to finish top of the 10-team group and gain last-stone advantage in the semi-final.
Meanwhile Rhona Martin's defending champions defied a hostile home crowd to move closer to claiming a semi-final place of their own at Pinerolo.
Martin secured a crucial double take-out in the penultimate end to overcome Italy 9-5 and put her team in third place with three round-robin matches to go.
And lead Lynn Cameron insisted the home fans - who frequently booed Britain's best shots - had inspired her side to return to form after a disappointing defeat on Friday.
Cameron said: "It was a really good atmosphere and it made us play better as well. It makes you more determined to beat them.
"Italy gave us a run for our money but we kept control and this was a crucial game for us."
Great Britain were due to return to the ice for a tough evening session test against fellow last four hopefuls Norway.
Martin's team were then set to complete their programme against two of the competition's weaker teams in Japan and the United States.
But Japan's shock 5-2 win over Canada today will have convinced Martin she still has a long way to go to repeat her golden feat of four years ago.
Finlay Mickel placed 22nd and Roger Cruickshank 37th in the delayed men's super-G in Sestriere.
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