Doubles, Mixed

Canada’s John Morris was back to defend his 2018 Olympic gold medal, although with a new partner, as his partner from 2018, Kaitlyn Lawes, was representing Canada as their third in the women’s team competition. For 2022, Morris was paired up with Rachel Homan, no stranger to Olympic competition herself, having represented Canada as skip of the 2018 women’s team. Also returning to compete for Olympic gold were 2018 silver medalists Jenny Perret and Martin Rios of Switzerland, and Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten, runners-up at the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Championships. Of the other doubles teams, Jenn Dodds and Bruce Mouat of Great Britain were considered a definite medal threat, based on their victory at the 2021 World Mixed Doubles Championship over Norway.

One doubles team who were overlooked as potential medalists in the run up to the Games were Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner of Italy, perhaps based on that country’s record as never having medaled at a World Mixed Doubles Championship, which were inaugurated in 2008. That oversight was unfortunate, because as the Olympic event unfolded, they soon proved themselves to be the class of the field. The Italian pair sailed through the round-robin in unblemished fashion, winning the majority of their games by fairly comfortable margins. The other favourites tried to keep pace behind them, but Switzerland struggled right out of the gate, losing their first three games, and defending gold medalists, Canada, stumbled near the end of the round-robin, losing their last two matches, one being to Australia, who had ironically been coached by Morris in the run up to the Olympics.

With the defending champions being eliminated from the medal round, Italy, Norway, Great Britain, and Sweden, represented by Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson, were left to square off. In the semi-finals, Italy continued their winning ways by rolling over the Swedes 8-1, while Norway edged Great Britain 6-5 in a tight match. The bronze medal game turned out to be no contest for Sweden, as they handily defeated Great Britain 9-3. The gold medal match started well for Norway as they stole two points in the first end, but Italy soon took control, scoring 6 points over the next three ends, including a critical steal of three in the fourth, which allowed them to cruise home with an 8-3 win. This was the first ever Olympic medal in curling for Italy, and Constantini became the youngest person to win a gold medal in Olympic curling. The Italian duo were also only the fourth team in Olympic curling history to emerge undefeated in event competition.