The curling tournament started two days before the official opening of the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo – with a first technical breakdown and an early abandonment.
At the start the mixed doubles were on the program. The games Sweden against South Korea, Great Britain against Norway, Canada against the Czech Republic and Estonia against Switzerland took place at the same time.
Power failure possible Air guitar solo
At the same time, the lights suddenly went out in the first end in the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. A power outage caused an interruption that lasted several minutes.
The athletes looked at each other questioningly. Two took advantage of the interruption and imitated an electric guitar with their brushes. After about five minutes, all matches could continue.
Great Britain defeats Norway
The duel between Great Britain and the Beijing silver medalist Norway was competitive at the beginning. After the fourth of eight ends the score was 4:4. Afterwards, Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat moved ahead to 7:4 with a strong fifth end. In the end, the Norwegians had to admit defeat 6:8.
Swiss win in the extra end against Estonia
Estonia’s game against Switzerland was even closer. With the score at 7:7, the game went into the extra end. There, the curling couple Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann had the upper hand and ultimately prevailed 9:7 against the Estonian duo Harri Lill and Marie Kaldvee.
South Koreans give against Swedish Sibling pair on
However, the game between the favored Swedish siblings Isabella and Rasmus Wrana against Seonyeong Kim and Yeongseok Jeong was a clear affair.
With the score at 10:3 for the Swedish double, the Koreans gave up after the sixth end. Here too there was confusion for a few minutes. Rasmus Wrana suggested several times to continue playing, but his opponents decided against it.
Canada made it clear against the Czech Republic
In the end there was also a clear result on the scoreboard between Canada and the Czech Republic. The Canadian duo Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant beat the Czechs Julie Zelingrova and Vit Cernovsky 10:5.
