Curling, Women

A strong women’s field featured the Anna Hasselborg skipped Swedish team, Republic of Korea, skipped by Kim Eun-Jeong, as well as the Japanese team skipped by Satsuki Fujisawa: the gold, silver, and bronze medalists of PyeongChang 2018. Other teams expected to contend for medals were 2019 and 2021 World champions, Switzerland, skipped by Silvana Tirinzoni; Canada, led by Jennifer Jones, gold medalist at Sochi 2014; the Russian Olympic Committee team, skipped by Alina Kovalyova, silver medalists at the 2021 World Championships; and the Scottish team representing Great Britain under skip Eve Muirhead, the 2014 bronze medalist who was making her fourth Olympic appearance.

In the round-robin portion of the competition, Switzerland and Sweden led the field, with the former losing only once, to Sweden, and the latter only falling to Great Britain and host China. The ROC team won only once in a major disappointment, and there turned out to be a real log jam in the middle of the field, prompting the final two teams moving through to the medal round to be decided by the new tie breaker format. Canada, Great Britain, and Japan all finished with 5-4 records, and since they all went 1-1 during head-to-head meetings, their respective average distance during the week’s pre-game two throw draw to the button settled their placements, with Canada being the odd team out. The first semi-final between Sweden and Great Britain was a classic, with lots of rocks in play, and plenty of big ends. Great Britain looked to be in real trouble after giving up four points in the first end, but fought their way back and surged into the lead with four of their own in the ninth end. Sweden attempted to rally with three in the 10th, but fell short in a 12-11 final. In the other semi-final, Japan broke the game open in the fifth end by scoring four on their way to an eventual 8-6 win over the Swiss.

The bronze medal game featured the top two teams in the round-robin, Switzerland and Sweden, culminating in an 8-6 win for Sweden. The Swedes seemed in control of the game from the first end on, with Switzerland being placed in the constant position of trying to catch up. In the gold medal match, Great Britain scored two in the first end, and although Japan was able to stay within hailing distance for a while, four points by the team led by Muirhead in the seventh end allowed them to cruise to a 10-3 final, a special moment for the veteran Scottish skip.