Curling “Marathon of a Roller Coaster” in Beijing

There’s a four-way tie for second place behind leaders Italy in mixed doubles curling at the Olympic Winter Games.

Switzerland and Canada have both rebounded, setting up an enticing head-to-head battle—and rematch of the PyeongChang 2018 final—when action resumes in Beijing Friday morning (Thursday evening in North America).

The Swiss were looking for their first win when they faced unbeaten Great Britain in the previous session, having lost to China and Italy. The jumped to an early 3-1 lead over the world champions and scored a second three-count in the fourth to lead 6-3 at the break.

The Swiss stayed ahead, after a Team GB deuce in the seventh end forced a 7-7 tie, but Jenny Perett didn’t have to throw her last stone in the final end as the Swiss won 8-7.

“Our plan is to win our next game, said Switzerland’s Martin Rios. “We will go game by game, end by end and we’ll see what it results in—whether it’s enough for the semifinal. Our goal is simply to play good curling.”

That’s a lesson his next opponent could take to heart; defending Olympic champion John Morris had been struggling while his Canada teammate Rachel Homan has performed well. After an opening draw loss to Great Britain, the pair defeated 2018 bronze medallists Norway 7-6 to improve their record to 1-1. And it was Morris who stepped up with a clutch draw in the eighth end.

“That was a huge shot, and a game-winner, obviously,” said Homan.

“Mixed doubles is a marathon of a roller coaster,” Morris said. “You see it in all those games out there. I get a sore head after games because my brain’s so, like, wired and I don’t want to miss an inch out there.

“We’ve still got a bit of room for improvement, and I’m looking forward to going to school and keep learning game by game here.”

Sweden, China and the Czech Republic joined Great Britain at 2-1. The Swedes handed surprising China their first loss by scoring three in the last end for a taut 7-6 victory.

“The Chinese team was playing great, we didn’t get easy mistakes from them when we had the pressure on them,” said Oskar Eriksson. “It looks like all the teams are in top form, so we are expecting every game to be as tough as this one.”

The not-quite-as-surprising Czechs took advantage of a critical Australian miss and stole three in the second end for a 4-0 lead. They stole another in the third frame and eventually won 8-2.

After winning their opening game on an Aussie miss, the USA duo of Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys dropped their next two games, 8-4 to Italy and 11-6 to Norway.

“Looking back on that (Italy) game, I just couldn’t figure (the ice) out for the first half,” said Plys. “Getting to the arena and out for practice, I felt good. I hopped on that struggle bus and couldn’t get off it until the halfway point.”

“Chris struggled more in the first game and I struggled more in the second half of this (Norway) game,” Persinger said. “So we’re kind of putting together what we’re learning so we can dial in at the same time.”

The Americans have Friday morning off and face Sweden in their sole match of the day.