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The curling competition of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games kicked off in the National Aquatics Center in Beijing on Wednesday as traditional powerhouse Sweden lost to the reigning world champion Britain 9-5 in the mixed doubles event. With the last stone advantage, Britain led the first end 1-0, before Sweden’s Almida de Val scored two points through a take-out in the second.
Britain took three points in the third to overtake the lead 4-2. Sweden then won the fourth 1-0 and fifth 2-0 to regain its one-point advantage at 5-4.
Then came the show of the Britons who levelled the match first by winning the sixth 1-0, leaping ahead 8-5 by taking the seventh 3-0 before sealing their victory with one more point in the eighth. “It was a tricky ice out there. We have been different from the practice this morning, so we have to learn the ice,” said Oskar Eriksson of Sweden, an Olympic silver medalist.
The Olympics saw the deepest field ever, featuring 10 teams after the mixed doubles made its debut in the World Championships in 2008. “We know that this would be one of the toughest games…So we have to play as good as we can. And if we can do that, I think we have a chance in every game,” said De Val.
And surely the British duo of Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat were satisfied with their performance. “I think we’re obviously gonna try and build on the momentum that we’ve got from tonight, and then we’ll see how we’re getting on toward the end of the week. We’ll just keep on going and be happy and smiling and whatever,” said Mouat, a two-time European champion and world silver medalist in the men’s competition. Dodds is also a European champion in the women’s event. Both will play in their team competitions in Beijing.
Chinese duo of Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi, who only teamed up for less than three months, scored a surprising victory of 7-6 over Swiss pair Jenny Perret and Martin Rios, the 2018 PyeongChang runners-up who have competed together since 2016. In other two matches of the day, American duo of Victoria Persinger and Christopher Plys defeated Australia 6-5, while the Czech Republic beat Norway 7-6. Both Australian and the Czech pairs made their Olympic debut. The mixed doubles competition will run until February 8.