Olympics-Curling-Sweden's 'Team Hasselborg' beat Switzerland for second women's gold

By Aadi Nair

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Anna Hasselborg's Sweden claimed a 6-5 victory over Switzerland in a tight final at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium on Sunday to become the first women's team to win three Olympic medals overall.

"Team Hasselborg" also won gold at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018 and followed that up with bronze in Beijing in 2022.

Despite their previous successes, they were far from favourites at these Games.

Major life changes in the past Olympic cycle led to a rough spell on the ice as they dealt with lineup variations, with three team members including Hasselborg having pregnancies in 2023.

However, they slowly built up some form ahead of their campaign in Cortina, winning a third European Curling Championships title in November.

They had a strong round-robin campaign and were the first team to qualify for the semi-finals, where they beat Canada, the top-ranked women's team in the world and two-times world champions.

STRONG START

In Sunday's game, Sweden got off to a strong start with a two-pointer and Silvana Tirinzoni's Switzerland twice blanked ends to retain the hammer, before both teams scored a point apiece to leave Hasselborg with a 3-1 lead at the halfway mark.

A couple of perfectly executed draws from Switzerland's last-rock thrower Alina Paetz helped them score two and level at 3-3 in the sixth end.

They then limited Sweden to just a single in the seventh, but as it felt like the momentum was slowly shifting in Tirinzoni's favour, Hasselborg stole a point to ease the pressure.

While Paetz was able to score two in the penultimate end, Hasselborg had the hammer and comfortably took her team over the finish line with a point, aided by a couple of sensational shots from Agnes Knochenhauer and Sara McManus.

"Starting with hammer was huge, we knew they would throw a lot of offensive (shots) at us. But we wanted to go hard and we got that two in the first. It was such a tight game," Hasselborg said.

"Before the Europeans in November, I was saying, 'it feels like we're peaking at the right time'. That was true."

The team's second Knochenhauer also moved level with compatriot Oskar Eriksson as the only two curlers to have won four medals at the Games.

Knochenhauer, 36, also competed as an alternate under Margaretha Sigfridsson in Sochi in 2014, when Sweden won silver.

"That feels amazing. I couldn't do anything of this without the team and without the families," Knochenhauer said.

SWISS PROUD

For four-times world champions Tirinzoni and Paetz, despite the defeat there will be pride in winning an Olympic medal, the only prize missing from their long and successful careers.

At the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022, the four-times world champions had come close, dominating the round-robin stage with eight wins and one defeat to enter the semi-finals.

However, they suffered a shock loss to Japan before falling to Hasselborg's Sweden in the bronze-medal game – sending them home empty-handed.

"I'm very proud of myself, of the team. We are Olympic medallists. Not many people can say that," Paetz said.

"Of course, there is a little disappointment that we didn't win the gold. But I think Sweden deserved that win. They played really well. They played well all week. I still think we had our chances. It was just not on our side today."

On Saturday, Rachel Homan's Canada beat the United States 10-7 to win bronze.