CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy – The Swedish women’s curling team maintained their flawless Olympic performance Monday, securing a challenging 6-4 victory over Switzerland to extend their winning streak to six consecutive matches and solidify their lead in the round-robin tournament.
Led by skip Anna Hasselborg, Sweden faced their most difficult challenge yet against Switzerland’s team, captained by Silvana Tirinzoni. The Swiss squad enters the Olympics as four-time world champions, making this matchup particularly significant.
“We know they were the team to beat,” Hasselborg commented after the victory. The Swedish skip previously captured gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and earned bronze in Beijing four years later.
“They’ve had an amazing season and we haven’t played them this year, but they have played so well. So we just wanted to go out there and play the other rock colour and just make our shots,” Hasselborg explained. “We were playing well and we were like, and we went pretty hard, like offensive and made a lot of good draws today.”
Switzerland quickly recovered from their loss, defeating Britain’s team led by Sophie Jackson with a commanding 10-6 victory during the evening session. The Swiss team now holds joint-second place in the standings alongside the United States, skippered by Tabitha Peterson, and South Korea, led by Gim Eun-ji. All three teams have recorded four victories against two defeats.
Canada demonstrated significant improvement throughout Monday’s competition, first overwhelming China 10-5 for their second tournament victory, then following up with a 9-6 triumph over Japan to strengthen their playoff positioning.
“I think every game we’ve seen us play better and better as the event’s gone on and we just have to keep going the way we are,” stated Canadian skip Rachel Homan.
Despite Canada’s status as two-time world champions and pre-tournament gold medal favorites, Homan carries a disappointing Olympic history. She has competed in the previous two Games but failed to qualify for the semifinals on both occasions.
The Canadian team currently sits in joint-fifth position with Denmark, having won three of their six matches.
Host nation Italy finally broke through for their inaugural tournament victory after suffering five consecutive defeats, defeating the United States 7-2 to the enthusiasm of supporters at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.
“We really had a good performance this evening,” said Italian skip Stefania Constantini, who captured bronze in mixed doubles competition last week with partner Amos Mosaner. “We were in control of the ice. We really worked good with the teamwork to put every stone in the right position. It’s good to finally have a win.”
Source: https://srnnews.com/olympics-curling-hasselborgs-sweden-stay-perfect-canada-claim-back-to-back-wins/
