Doubles, Mixed

The mixed doubles event, an addition to the Olympic program, was contested at senior international level for the first time at the 2008 World Mixed Doubles Championship. It was already proposed to be included at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, but was not approved by the IOC until 2015, for the PyeongChang Games. The discipline is played with only two players in each team, one male and one female, throwing five stones altogether. One major difference to traditional team curling are the two stones – one for each team - that are positioned prior to the beginning of the end. One stone is positioned in the back of the four foot circle and one as center guard. The team with the hammer, i.e. with the right of the last stone, can opt for either stone. Recently, a power play option was introduced that allows additional options for positioning of the stones but, in official tournaments, just once per game.

Previous World Mixed Championships also saw countries on the podium that never excelled in traditional team curling, like Hungary, Austria or Spain. The final of the last World Championship in 2017 was won by Switzerland, the most successful nation in mixed doubles curling, with six titles in ten World Championships. PyeongChang produced a repeat of the 2017 World final with Switzerland again playing Canada. This time, however, the North Americans came out on top, to make up for their disappointing performances in the men’s and women’ events.

Eight teams, mostly from traditional curling nations, qualified for the mixed event, four European, two North American and one Asian, plus South Korea as the host nation. Canada placed first in the round robin stage with Switzerland second. The team “Olympic Athletes from Russia”, Norway and China tied with four wins each. China was defeated by Norway in the tie breaker, although they had dominated Norway 9-3 in the round robin game. In the semi-finals, Canada and Switzerland prevailed, thus confirming the final standing of the round robin. In the final, the Swiss team of Jenny Perret and Martin Rios was no match for the Canadians Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris. They won three of the ends with two stones, and won the third end by four as Canada built a comfortable lead and Switzerland resigned after six ends trailing 3-10. Switzerland’s Rios and Perret had been World Champions in 2017, Rios for the second time, having also won in 2012. For the two players in the recently formed Canadian duo, it was already their second major gold: Lawes won the gold with the women’s team at Sochi, and Morris won gold with the men’s team in Vancouver.

Together with her partner and, since 2017, husband Aleksandr Krushelnitsky, Anastasiya Bryzgalova was the mixed doubles World Champion in 2016. In PyeongChang they beat Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten for third place by 8-4, in a game where the Norwegians always trailed the Russians. Just days later, Krushelnitsky was tested positive for the banned drug Meldonium, a cardiovascular active substance produced in Latvia and only approved in some Eastern European countries, including Russia. He was found guilty by the Court of Abitration for Sport (CAS) on February 22nd and both athletes returned their bronze medals. The medals were awarded to the Norwegians, also a couple in real life, who had represented Norway at five World Championships, winning a bronze in 2015. They had already returned to their home country after their bronze-medal match, but returned to Korea immediately to be awarded their medals on February 24th, a unique procedure in Olympic history. After appeals, the disqualification of Krushelnitsky and the OAR team was upheld by the CAS in a final decision announced 4 December 2018. Krushelnitsky planned an appeal but in January 2019 dropped those plans, and the result seemed finalized.