11 December 2025
United States’ Casper secures ticket to Milano Cortina Olympics 2026
United States became the first men’s team to claim a place in the Olympic field when they beat China by 9-4 in the first men’s play-off game.
China will have a second chance to join them when they face Japan in Thursday’s second men’s play-off game.
China’s skip Xu Xiaoming opened the scoring with two points in the first end.
In response, American skip Daniel Casper could only score one point in the second, but the Americans drew level at 2-2 in the third when Xu attempted to come in off a stone on the wing, but hit it too thin giving up a steal.
In the fourth end, Xu faced a cluster of American stones round the button and eventually gave up another single steal for an American 3-2 lead.
When he came to play his last shot of the fifth, China’s Xu was again facing three American stones in the house. His final draw was light and this gave the Americans a third successive single-point steal for a 4-2 lead.
China scored one in the sixth to reduce the American lead to 4-3. In the seventh America’s Daniel Casper was forced by Xu’s to take a 5-3 lead. In the eighth, Xu played a nose-hit for one point as he reduced the American lead to 5-4.
China missed a pivotal draw in the ninth, narrowly missing everything and giving the USA an open draw for four. China then conceded, leaving the Americans to celebrate their place in the Olympic line-up, 9-4.
The Chinese now must prepare for a last chance play-off against Japan.
After his triumph, Casper said, “it’s a trend of ours not to start out the best. We just wanted to get the ice speed dialled, then we were really comfortable. We’ve got two pretty massive sweepers and that’s pretty helpful, too.”
“I felt pressure, but it’s an honour to play in games that give you that. This felt like a real group effort.”
“I have no idea (what happens now). I didn’t want to think about things till we got there. I guess I’ll find out now!”
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