Third gold medal since Beijing

Scottish curlers representing Great Britain have scored a clean sweep of curling’s gold medals at the Winter Youth Olympics at Gangneung, Korea.

Callie Soutar and Ethan Brewster defeated Denmark’s brother and sister duo of Jacob and Katrine Schmidt 7-6 in Thursday’s final of the mixed doubles discipline.

A Great Britain squad skipped by Logan Carson beat the Schmidts in the four-player mixed team gold medal game back on Jan. 23.

Team GB stole the first two ends for a 3-0 lead, but two ends later the score was 4-3 to Denmark.

The match turned in the fifth and sixth ends. In the fifth, Soutar made her last shot to score three and a 6-4 lead. In the sixth frame, the Scots overcame the Danish power-play and held them to a single point.

Leading 7-5 coming home, Souter made a fine stone while facing three and the Danes missed their final shot, scoring only one.

Ethan Brewster is the son of men’s world champion and Olympian Tom Brewster. The elder Brewster was installing the ice for the upcoming Scottish championships in Dumfries while the championship final was played in Korea.

Brewster said he was attempting to flood the ice while his phone was flooded with messages from supporters.

“I’m really, really proud,” said Brewster. “Ethan has grown up watching and loving the sport. He’s worked very hard this season and it’s paid off. We weren’t sure what to expect as they had only played one mixed doubles event before this, so it’s relatively new but they both played great.

“The Youth Olympics is a massive opportunity for any athlete and I’m sure Ethan has gained so much experience in Korea … and to win gold is the icing on the cake.”

Great Britain have now won three out of five Olympic curling golds and four Olympic medals overall in the last two years.

At Beijing 2022, Eve Muirhead defeated Japan for women’s team gold while Bruce Mouat’s men’s squad captured silver behind Sweden.

Earlier, the United States captured Winter Youth Olympic mixed doubles bronze with a stolen victory over Sweden.

Sweden’s Maja Roxin and Jonatan Myerson led 4-1 after five ends but USA’s Ella Wendling and Benji Paral fought back for the 7-4 win.