Great Britain’s women’s curling team snuck into the semi-finals at Beijing 2022 courtesy of the final stone of the entire round-robin competition.
Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff needed to win their final match and for other matches to go their way after suffering an 8-4 defeat to China on Wednesday.
They dominated the contest against the Russian Olympic Committee team to win 9-4 but needed Sweden to beat Korea to ensure their passage into the last four. That match came down to the final stone with the Swedes holding on for the win. Britain and Sweden face each other in the last four on Friday.
Muirhead said: “We had to win that game and that was the first thing we had to do today. We had one eye on the other games. I’m very proud of this team. I think we’ve got a great chance out there. We’ve played very well all week. I cant wait to get out here tomorrow night.”
The British men’s team topped the group stages of the curling to go into the semi-finals at the as the No1 seed.
Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan beat Canada 5-2 to give them eight wins from nine group games and put them top.
The US are the only team to beat the British quartet so far, and the two nations play again shortly after midday on Thursday.
Looking ahead to the semi-final, victory in which would guarantee a British medal at these Games, Mouat said: “If we go out and play our best game then we’ll be tough to beat, we’re playing really well and really happy with how we’re communicating out there.
“We will just have to try and replicate what we did out there today.”
Britain also have finalists in both the men’s and women’s halfpipe event.
Teenager Zoe Atkin was an impressive fourth in qualifying with a best run of 86.75 points as Eileen Gu, already with a gold and silver at these Games, was a class apart from the rest of the field with two scores in the 90s. Her best run of 95.50 was six points clear of the next best qualifier, Canada’s Rachael Karker.
The 19-year-old Atkin admitted afterwards: “I was really nervous. Sometimes qualifying can be even more nerve-wracking than finals so I just wanted to put one down.
“After I landed my first run, I was like ‘phew, the pressure’s off’. I do have a a couple of tricks that I might be putting in tomorrow but you’ll have to watch and see.”
Gus Kenworthy, whose build-up to Beijing has been derailed by concussions, Covid and injury, snuck into the men’s final. He fell on his first run but finished 12th – the last qualifying spot – in run two.
Meanwhile, Mikaela Shiffrin’s Olympic horror show continued as she recorded her third DNF of the event. The American is only the second woman in history to compete in all six Alpine events.
But having finished fifth in the downhill section of the Alpine combined event, she again failed to complete the slalom leg. She has one final chance of a medal in the mixed team parallel slalom event.
Winter Olympics medal table
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
|
1 |
Norway |
13 |
7 |
8 |
28 |
2 |
Germany |
10 |
6 |
4 |
20 |
3 |
USA |
8 |
8 |
4 |
20 |
4 |
China |
7 |
4 |
2 |
13 |
5 |
Austria |
6 |
7 |
4 |
17 |
6 |
Netherlands |
6 |
4 |
4 |
14 |
6= |
Sweden |
6 |
4 |
4 |
14 |
8 |
Switzerland |
6 |
1 |
5 |
12 |
9 |
ROC |
4 |
8 |
12 |
24 |
10 |
France |
4 |
7 |
2 |
13 |
- |
Great Britain |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
