On This Day in Olympic Curling History: Feb 23

TORINO 2006

Canada kicked off the women’s curling finale in Pinerolo by winning the bronze medal over Norway.

One day after semifinal disappointment to Switzerland, the Canadians put together a solid performance in thrashing Dordi Nordby of Norway 11-5.

Canada scored four in the first end, added a steal in the second, and nabbed another four-count in the fifth.

The main event – the gold medal final – saw Mirjam Ott’s Switzerland take on the five-time and defending European champions from Sweden skipped by Anette Norberg.

Norberg held the lead for most of the match but the Swiss kept chipping away, and eventually scored two late deuces to force an extra end.

Norberg faced a tricky double-takeout on her last stone of the extra to win and she made it, earning a solid 7-6 victory and Olympic women’s gold.

The “metal” gesture from third Eva Lund immediately after the win dates back to mid-January, when the Norberg team appeared in a music video with Swedish heavy metal band Hammerfall.

PYEONGCHANG 2018

The penultimate day at Gangneung Curling Centre kicked off with the men’s bronze medal game, which saw Switzerland’s Peter de Cruz take out Canada’s Kevin Koe 7-5.

Switzerland badly outshot their opponents, apart from Canada’s Ben Hebert who threw a perfect 100% game. 

The night session started at 8:05 p.m. local time. One women’s semifinal featured Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg against Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead, who had captured bronze at Sochi 2014.

The other semi was highly anticipated, as it starred Korea’s own Kim Eun-jung, who had finished first at 8-1, against continental rivals Japan, skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa.

The Swedes gradually wore Muirhead down, leading 2-0 and 3-1 before Great Britain tied the score in the fifth end. From that point on it was all Hasselborg, as Sweden took two and stole three to re-open the lead at 8-3. The final score was 10-5.

The other semi was a blockbuster, and is often referred to as one of the greatest women’s curling games in history.

Korea opened with three points and led 6-3 at the break, but Japan refused to go quietly. After grabbing a deuce in the eighth end Fujisawa stole the ninth to tie the score at 7-7, forcing an extra end.

Kim made her final draw with full sweeping for the win, as the arena exploded in delight. The “Garlic Girls” were into the next day’s Olympic final.

VANCOUVER 2010

Session 12 of the men’s round robin concluded with unbeaten Canada demolishing China 10-3, Sweden edging Denmark 7-6, Norway dumping Great Britain 9-5 and Switzerland defeating France 6-2.

Niklas Edin and David Murdoch (both 5-4) would meet in a tiebreaker the following afternoon for the fourth and final playoff spot. 

The winner would meet Kevin Martin (9-0) in one semifinal while Thomas Ulsrud (7-2) was set to battle Ralph Stoeckli (6-3) in the other.

In women’s play, the final two sessions revealed a top four with no need for tiebreakers.

Front-running Canada (8-1) and second-place Sweden (7-2) both won two games to keep their places, as did eventual fourth-place Switzerland (6-3). Third-best China won a single match to finish third at 6-3.

The athletes would enjoy day off and return on Feb. 25 for the semifinals – Cheryl Bernard versus Mirjam Ott, and Anette Norberg against Wang Bingyu.