Curling, Women

While there was a surprise winner in the men’s tournament, it was the silver medalists in the women’s event that caused the biggest surprise, when South Korea played beyond all expectations. Previously, Korea’s best, and only, result at the Olympics was an eighth place four years ago in Sochi. At the World Championships of 2012 and 2014 they finished fourth on each occasion.

All team members of the 2018 team were centered around skip Kim Eun-Jung and had the surname Kim, with two of them being sisters. They all came from the town of Uiseong, which is particularly famous for its garlic. All of the squad started curling twelve years ago, when a curling center opened in their hometown. The first senior appearance together was at the World’s at Beijing in 2017, when they placed sixth.

In PyeongChang, however, Korea played an outstanding round robin series, winning eight of nine games, including victories against highly favored teams like Canada (2014 gold medalists and 2017 World Champions), Sweden (2014 silver medalist), “Olympic Athletes from Russia” (2017 second at the World’s), Great Britain, and the United States. Korea’s only defeat was a narrow 5-7 loss to Asian rivals Japan. The hosts were carried through the tournament on a rising wave of patriotism by their fans in the stands, and throughout the country. The other two semi-finalists were not major surprises: Sweden had won two gold and one silver medal in the least three Olympics, Great Britain (Scotland) won bronze at Sochi 2014 and also at the 2017 World Championships, and the other country making up the last four, Japan, had picked up the silver medal at the 2016 World Championships. Clearly disappointing in the round robin series were Canada (sixth) and Switzerland (seventh), both with four wins and 5 losses.

In their semi-final, Korea managed to take revenge for the defeat in the round robin, and defeated Japan in an extremely narrow game, 8-7, scoring the decisive point in an extra end. In the other semi-final, Sweden outscored Great Britain 10-5 after nine ends. In the final, Sweden gave the South Koreans no chance, as they won their third gold medal in women’s team curling, after 2006 and 2010, with an 8-3 victory after nine ends, leading the host nation to concede. The Swedish team, led by skip Anna Hasselborg, gradually increased their lead and, after scoring three points in the seventh end, the game was virtually over. In the last two ends, Sweden just had to defend the attacks of their opponents to secure the gold. Even though only one member of the Swedish team, Agnes Knochenhauer, had the experience of competing in the World Championship and Olympic Games, they could obviously handle the pressure of an Olympic final much better than their Korean opponents.

After a thrilling bronze medal game Japan, with skip Satsuki Fujisawa, surprisingly took the bronze medal. Great Britain had victory in their grasp, but skip Eve Muirhead spoiled the last stone, so the bronze went to the underdogs, 5-3.