19 December 2025
Korea claim final spot at Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games
Korea beat Australia 10-5 in Thursday evening’s second qualification game of the Olympic Qualification Event, securing the last available place at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Australia started the game with hammer and, with one of her own stones sitting as shot stone, Tahli Gill cautiously threw away her last stone to open the scoring with one point.
Korea responded in the second end with a draw by Kim Seon-Yeong to level the game at 1-1.
Then, in the third, Australia’s Gill was heavy with her final stone, giving Korea a steal of two and a 3-1 lead.
In the fourth end, Australia’s Dean Hewitt wrecked on a take-out attempt. However, Gill played a draw to the button, nudging out a Korean stone as she did so to score two points and level the game at 3-3.
In the fifth end, Korea’s Kim Seon-Yeong made a draw around front guards and scored three points to give her team a decisive 6-3 lead.
Australia reduced Korea’s lead to 6-5 with a draw for two in the sixth end, but a draw for one by Korea’s Kim in the seventh extended Korea’s lead to 7-5.
In the eighth end, Gill had to attempt a complicated take-out, but got the angles wrong, to give Korea a steal of three more points and the 10-5 victory that gives them the final place in the Olympic line-up.
After his team’s win, Korea’s Jeong Yeongseok said, “We just wanted to play our best whether we won or lost. We did play our best and now we get to go to the Olympics, and we will try our best there too.”
The qualified Korea mixed doubles team is female player Kim Seon-Yeong, male player Jeong Yeongseok and coach Howard Vrajala.
All Olympic Qualification Event games are available on the Curling Channel, however, there may be restrictions due to broadcast partner agreements.
Find all results and standings from the mixed doubles event here.
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