It’s great to see Madeleine Dupont’s Danish foursome playing well at the European Championships.

The fun-loving crew sported a 5-0 won/loss record as of Monday afternoon, and competes the old-fashioned way. The squad is made up of amateurs, who find themselves maneuvering amongst a growing sea of professional players funded by governments.

Not the Danes, who raised eyebrows a little over a year ago by winning a World Curling Tour event in Switzerland.

It’s also nice to see Italy’s Stefania Constantini in second place at 4-1, tied with Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni.

The Italian women’s fours have been a step behind the Italian men’s team development in recent years. While the Joel Retornaz foursome are now the defending world and European bronze medallists—they were 5-0 on the men’s side thus far in Östersund—Constantini’s women haven’t really broken through yet. 

They, like Dupont, also captured a World Curling Tour event just a few weeks ago in Swift Current, Sask. and have finished third in two others this season.

Italy and Denmark clash on Monday evening.

Fans have noted Sweden mired at 2-3 in their first five matches, although skip Anna Hasselborg is breaking in a new lineup.

Tied with Italy at 5-0 on the men’s side is Scotland’s Bruce Mouat and Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller.

The other big cheeses, Sweden, are struggling at 2-4 after a narrow Monday afternoon victory over Mikkel Krause’s Denmark. Oskar Eriksson is skipping a modified host team.

We can’t remember the last time a Swedish men’s team was in a hole like this. Then again, we can barely remember the last time the injured Niklas Edin missed a European Championship.

Germany’s Sixten Totzek ranks fourth at 3-2. Sweden will face Germany, plus Czech Republic, Spain and Türkiye, to finish their round-robin.

Now let’s just sit back and enjoy this shot, made by Swedish skip Oskar Eriksson against Italy over the weekend.