On This Day in Olympic Curling History: Feb 25

PYEONGCHANG 2018

Due to the doping violation and suspension of the OAR team, Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten – who had originally finished fourth in the mixed doubles competition – returned to PyeongChang to receive their reallocated Olympic bronze medals.

It was an unusual ceremony held at the Medal Plaza.

“The fact that we actually got to go back for a weekend trip to Korea to receive the medal… it was only us on the podium, no one else standing in the first or second place,” Skaslien told The Curling News. 

“I had been back at work for three days when I got an email with plane tickets. I sent my boss a text message telling him, ‘I’ve got first-class tickets to South Korea, I’ll be back by Tuesday’. 

“It is much better coming here than having (the medal) sent by post months later, though I would have accepted it and picked it up in the mailbox.” 

VANCOUVER 2010

The women’s semifinals were played at 9:00 a.m. and served up a bit of everything; one was a scintillating see-saw clash and the other a methodical one-sided display.

Defending champions Sweden stole two early ends and added a three-count in the fifth end en route to a 9-4 win over China. 

The difference was the struggles of 2009 world champion skip Wang Bingyu, who fired only 60% compared to defending Olympic champion Anette Norberg (75%).

In the other semi, the raucous home crowd cheered on Canada’s Cheryl Bernard foursome as they defeated Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott by a 6-5 scoreline.

Once again, Calgary skip Bernard shouldered the heavy load, and continued to excel with her shotmaking in critical situations.

Once again, Ott had lost an Olympic semifinal. It was her second in a row, following a similar loss to a Canadian team (also from Calgary) at Pinerolo in 2006.

The day also marked Ott’s third consecutive Olympic playoff appearance, after winning silver as third for skip Luzia Ebnoether at Salt Lake City 2002.

TCN blogstar Margo Weber, already a huge Olympics fan, knew some members of the Canadian team and went bonkers watching, before she hopped in a vehicle and headed to Vancouver.

On the men’s side, twins steals of two wrecked the inaugural Olympic dream for Niklas Edin as his Swedish team fell 6-3 to Canada’s Kevin Martin.

The fateful blows were dealt in the fifth and sixth ends, and the veteran outshot his Scandinavian counterpart by 86% to 68%.

Canada’s opponents in the gold medal final would be Norway, who took out Switzerland by a 7-5 count in the other semifinal.

Thomas Ulsrud’s crew, under constant media pressure for comments about their amazing crazy pants, narrowed their focus to defeat Ralph Stockeli’s tough Swiss outfit. The major blow was  a steal in end three for a 2-0 lead, followed by two deuces in ends five and nine.

Up next: the women’s bronze and gold medal games on Feb. 25.