Men’s gold in Beijing, Mike McEwen’s semiblog from Sochi, more from Pinerolo and Salt Lake tiebreaker chaos
BEIJING 2022
One day after the bronze medal match, Niklas Edin and his Swedish squad finally captured their elusive Olympic gold, defeating Bruce Mouat of Great Britain 5-4 in an extra-end.
Stephen Fisher-World CurlingSweden built a 3-1 lead with a deuce and a steal, and managed the scoreboard in expert fashion the rest of the way.
Edin and Co. had won silver four years earlier in PyeongChang, and bronze at Sochi 2014.
In the women’s bronze medal match, defending champions Sweden, skipped by Anna Hasselborg, came through with a wild 9-7 victory over Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni.
Stephen Fisher-World CurlingThe Swiss had a great week in China but lost their last two matches, the semi and bronze match.
“I don’t know, we made some unusual mistakes,” Tirinzoni said. “I have no explanation for that, actually. I felt before the game that we were ready, but then I don’t know what happened on the ice.”
The gold medal game was set for the next day, Feb. 20.
PYEONGCHANG 2018
USA’s John Shuster was mired at 2-4 in the standings when his team defeated Canada’s Kevin Koe 9-7.
It was this victory that spearheaded an amazing run that is still talked about in curling circles… and it was also a prelude to another CAN-USA battle.
Rachel Homan needed a comeback, too • Anil Mungal-The Curling NewsSOCHI 2014
Jennifer Jones jumped out to a 3-0 lead and held it to defeat Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead 6-4 at Gangneung and claim a berth in the Olympic women’s team final.
One sheet over, Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson scored three late points, including a steal in the 10th end, to devastate Switzerland’s Mirjim Ott by a 7-5 count.
The Swiss outshot their opponents at three of the four player positions including at back end, and by quite margin – but, as we all know, shooting percentages don’t tell the whole story.
Mike McEwen was on The Curling News Blog once again, and filed this rather awesome report.
Anil Mungal-The Curling NewsOn the men’s semifinal side, Great Britain’s David Murdoch – who made an incredible to shot to win the the previous day’s tiebreaker – edged Sweden’s Niklas Edin 6-5, taking two in the final end to do so.
Next door, Canada’s Brad Jacobs grabbed two late three-enders to defeat China’s Liu Rui 10-6.
It would be Canada and Team GB for gold the following day.
TORINO 2006
Shannon Kleibrink’s Canada rediscovered some grit, and Canada’s Brad Gushue had to beat New Zealand and USA in their last two matches to avoid a mess of tiebreakers.
Peja Lindholm of Sweden fell out of contention after a fifth loss to Germany’s Andy Kapp.
Our guy on the scene also reported that CNBC’s U.S. audience numbers for curling were up 300 hundred per cent from Salt Lake 2002, and Canada’s TSN had 350,000 watching a 3:00 a.m. ET game earlier in the competition.
Growth apparent.
SALT LAKE 2002
It was tiebreaker chaos in Ogden, as two women’s matches were contested.
Great Britain’s Rhona Martin scored an upset win over Sweden’s Elisabet Gustafson, winning 6-4. The big blows were steals of two and one, in ends four and five. Ouch.
Later on, tiebreaker two saw Martin again score a victory, this time over Germany’s Natalie Nessler.
This one ended up 9-5 after Team GB score two three-enders and added a steal.
Even a late deuce from the Germans couldn’t stem the tide, and Martin was into the semifinals.