World Champs Canada open with seven end win at Olympic Winter Games

Canada, reigning world champions and among the favourites for the Olympic title, faced Denmark in the women’s opening round-robin session on Thursday morning.

The game was tight for the first four ends, with the score tied at 3-3.

However, in the fifth Canada built up a collection of stones, and when Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont came to play her last stone, there were five Canadian stones counting.

Emma Miskew, Canada © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Dupont only managed to remove one of them, to give up a steal of four and hand Canada a game-changing 7-3 lead. After this, Denmark could only score one point in the sixth end when Dupont successfully drew her final stone, to reduce the Canadian lead to 7-4.

Yet, Canada added another three points in the seventh with a draw by skip Rachel Homan and, with the score now at 10-4, Denmark conceded.

After the game Canada skip Rachel Homan said, “I think we made a pile of shots early, and it felt pretty comfortable — the ice feels really good.”

Rachel Homan, Canada © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

In terms of Olympic appearances, Denmark are the most experienced team playing — skip Madeleine Dupont is now at her fourth Olympic Games, while sister Denise tops that, with five appearances.

About being at the Olympic Games, Denise says, “I just love [being back at the Olympics]. Love to be here. Love the crowd, love the atmosphere — don’t love that we just lost — but everything else, it’s really nice to be here.”

And Madeleine shared that view, “So many things make the Olympics special, it’s just such a big event that you want to do your best in. You want to do that in every event but if you can just turn it up fifty percent because you really want to do good and be proud of yourself.”

For the first time, the Danish women have received extra financial support from agencies back home. About this, Madeleine said, “I think it makes us feel really confident. We’re not going to win all our games — which is obvious now — but we’re feeling really confident. The ice is good, we’re playing well — one bad end here and there, that’s going to happen for everyone. I think we just have a good feeling.”

Speaking about the game, Denise said, “The first four ends were almost perfect, we put Canada under pressure. But then we had one bad end, and we were changing tactics a bit. Then of course we had to make difficult shots.”

Denmark’s Mathilde Halse, Jasmin Holtermann and Denise Dupont © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

Elsewhere in the session, Switzerland faced hosts Italy. By the fifth end, the teams were tied at 2-2 when Switzerland’s fourth player Alina Paetz drew a second Swiss stone around the button to score two points, giving her team a 4-2 lead. Another draw for two points by Paetz in the seventh end gave Switzerland a 6-3 lead on the way to an opening 7-4 win.

After this performance a delighted Swiss skip Silvana Tirinzoni said, “We’re very happy. I think my team played great actually. I know it’s a first Games for Selina (lead player Selina Witschonke) and she just played a normal game. Everyone was just performing on a very high level. I felt very comfortable with the ice and it’s nice to see.”

Silvana Tirinzoni, Switzerland © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

More generally, she said about her team, “We’re surprisingly calm actually. We know how important this is but still I felt like it’s still the same team, the same characters, and everyone is in a good mood.”

Looking forward, she added, “We just need to keep playing like we did. I thought this game was fantastic and I think that’s something we can build. We have like another eight very tough competitors ahead of us and we have to perform very well — we’re ready for that.”

Alina Paetz, Switzerland © World Curling / Stephen Fisher

United States of America faced Republic of Korea in this opening session.

Korea forced two blank ends early in the game (first and fifth), and in the tenth, the Americans held a 6-4 lead. Korea’s skip Gim Eunji attempted a take-out that could score a possible three points and give her team the win. But her attempt was too thin and instead she gave up a steal of two to hand the Americans an opening 8-4 win.

The fourth game of this session saw Sweden play Japan. After scoring three in the fourth end, Sweden went into the break leading by 5-1, before going on to win by 8-4 in nine ends.