“I think it will hurt but that’s curling for you,” Jen Dodds whispered, her voice struggling to be heard even in the eerie quiet of an empty Ice Cube, as she sought to process how an Olympic semi-final that was going so well slipped away.
Britain’s mixed curlers could almost sniff a gold medal match against Italy on Tuesday but a few errant shots turned a 4-2 lead into a 6-5 defeat. The added gut punch? The match came down to the final stone.
No wonder the pain was etched on her face. Now Dodds, and her mixed doubles partner, Bruce Mouat, need to find an urgent pick-me-up before a bronze medal playoff against Sweden on Tuesday afternoon in Beijing.
It surely helps that Britain beat Sweden 9-5 when the teams met in the group stage. “It will be tough to get over but there is a medal still up for grabs and we are hungry for it,” said Mouat.
For much of their nervy semi-final against the Norwegian husband and wife Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien it looked as if Britain was making a confident stride towards its first curling gold medal for 20 years.
During the opening five ends the Team GB coach, David Murdoch, reckoned his team were performing at their highest level of the whole tournament. But then the Norwegians took their powerplay on the sixth and things began to unravel. A few loose shots – including a difficult takeout attempt from Dodds – left Skaslien the chance to roll in for three and turn the game around.
“The powerplay changes the dynamic a little bit and you’re trying to play shots you wouldn’t play in the first five ends,” said Mouat. “We were just over-icing a few things and we didn’t make any of the doubles that we were trying.”
That blip need not have become a disaster, as Britain were able immediately to take their power play in the seventh end. However, they scored only one, which left them needing a miracle with the Norwegians having the hammer, or last shot, on the eighth and final end.
“When you don’t have the hammer it’s quite a scary position to be in. We just tried to play as good as we could and fair play to her [Skaslien] for playing the draw to the button to win,” said Mouat. “With Jen’s last we just needed to put it in a really good position to force Kristen into playing a really tough draw but unfortunately we over-swept it a bit, so we’re disappointed with how we handled that.”
Murdoch, who won a silver medal in the men’s curling in 2014, said: “It’s going to hurt. It was a really well controlled game. Jen and Bruce were doing everything we asked. It was the best I’ve seen us play this week and for five ends we were clearly the better team.
“But unfortunately when it comes to the powerplay, if you have a couple of small errors you can easily lose three. That was the deciding point of the game. When we had the powerplay back at the seventh end and we just didn’t make the shots we were looking for. Trying to steal the last end is always quite difficult.
“I’m gutted for them. Because they are so talented they’re going to have a great shot against Sweden. It’s going to hurt but we’ll bounce back.”
A bronze medal would still be a great achievement, marking the first time Britain has won a mixed curling medal; the discipline was introduced to the Olympic programme only in 2018.
Mouat believes that, whatever happens, Team GB’s performances have attracted a whole new audience to the sport. “I’m excited that curling is being talked about and we can show off our sport on such a big stage. I’m proud of how we made the play-offs and that’s an achievement,” he said.
