USA and Sweden for Olympic Mixed Doubles Curling Gold

Top-ranked Great Britain and defending Olympic champions Italy were both defeated in thrilling semifinal mixed doubles curling action on Monday night.

USA’s Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin made a hit and flop for two on their last shot of the game to defeat Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner of Italy 9-8 to clinch a berth in Tuesday’s gold medal final.

Their opponents will be Sweden, who scored a huge end on front-running Great Britain to win by a 9-3 scoreline.

The final is a battle of former world champions, “Cory and Korey” – Thiesse and Dropkin – in 2023 and Sweden’s sister-brother combo of Isabella and Rasmus Wrana in 2024.

Rasmus Wrana will be the most decorated competitor in Tuesday’s final draw.The 31-year-old won Olympic men’s fours gold with Niklas Edin at Beijing 2022, Olympic silver in 2018 and has shared in five of his team’s last eight world men’s championships.

His sister and the Americans are all making their Olympic debuts at Cortina d’Ampezzo.

The Swedes scored a massive five-ender in the sixth end to essentially win the game.

Britain’s Jenn Dodds and Bruce Mouat, lifelong childhood friends who aced the round robin with just a single loss at Cortina, also lost the semifinal four years ago in Beijing.

“We’ve had such a good week, and it was quite exciting for us to go into this game feeling the way we were feeling,” said Dodds. “And then to come out and not perform even close to what we wanted to was… it’s just hard to put into words, really.”

The pair, lifetime childhood friends, also lost the semifinal four years ago in Beijing.

Great Britain will face Italy for bronze prior to tomorrow’s gold medal final. Both are also world champions in this discipline: Dodds/Mouat in 2021 and Constantini/Mosaner last year.

The Italians had beaten USA earlier in the day to conclude the round robin.

Following the semifinal, a frustrated Mosaner smashed his brush on the carpet behind the coach’s bench, and also smacked the bench.