Team effort helps Sweden to win a bronze medal in curling for women
Curling is a team sport and Sweden needed the whole team to defeat Switzerland on Saturday and win the Olympic curling bronze for women.
All Sweden needed to do was land a stone in the 4-footer on the last roll of the tenth to win. The draft from the hand of ship Anna Hasselborg was easy and risked not succeeding. It took all four sweepers to heat the ice just enough to get the stone down on the ice, but their efforts were rewarded with a one-on-one win 9-7 for the bronze medal.
The effort helped Sweden to take down the undoubtedly best team in the women’s curling tournament at these matches. Both Sweden and Switzerland were forced to settle for the bronze medal game after each was upset in the semifinals. Switzerland, who were number 1 after going 8-1 in round robin games, fell to Japan. After Saturday’s loss, the defending world champions will now leave the 2022 games without a medal.
Sweden entered the 2022 Games as defending Olympic gold medalists and was number 2 in seed after round robin games. They were also upset by lower seed Britain in the semi-finals, that match ended with 11 endings.
In Saturday’s match, Sweden had a lead of 3-2 at half time and doubled their points in the sixth. Hasselborg’s penultimate stone pulled into the 4-footer to give her team two in points. The Swiss bay Alina Paetz’s selection attempt came far too easily and hit her own rock on top of the 8-footer to allow Hasselborg another draw that made three and gave her team a 4-point lead.
Both teams’ jumps missed shots in the seventh, the biggest from Paetz who had a chance of three or even four points, but fell short on his club throw and had to settle for two. Paetz still helped his team go into the eighth consecutive 6-4.
Hasselborg made up his own mistakes in the eighth. Her hammer throw hit Switzerland’s inside stone at a perfect angle to knock it out while holding her own stone in place to score two points and go back by four.
But keeping the lead in curling is extremely difficult, and Switzerland did not make it easy for Sweden. In the ninth, the Swiss had two stones in the house, and Paetz came with a takeout and stuck his stone for three to cut Sweden’s lead to one, 8-7, with one end to play.
Sweden played an almost perfect finish to keep Switzerland off the board in the tenth.
The win gives Sweden six curling medals for women, which breaks with Canada for most of any country. It is the second bronze medal for a Swedish women’s curling team.
The win is also the second curling medal that Sweden wins in one day. The Swedish men’s curling team won gold about five hours earlier.