Bravissimo.

Italy has made curling history by winning Olympic gold in mixed doubles at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner dismantled Norway’s Kristian Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten 8-5 for their 10th straight win at the Ice Cube in Beijing.

A rare miss from Contantini gave the Norwegians, Olympic bronze medallists in 2018, an early 2-0 lead but it was all Italy from that point forward. Two ends later Italy led by one, and the scoreline jumped to 6-2 after a huge steal of three in the fourth.

Leading 7-5 in the final end and with their power play in use, the result was not in doubt.

This marks Italy’s first medal of any colour in adult world championship or Olympic competition.

He is 26, and plays third on veteran Joel Retornaz’s four-player team, who start their men’s competition on Wednesday. He practices mostly with them.

She is just 22 and skips the Italian women’s team (they didn’t make it to Beijing) and mostly practices with them or alone.

Mosaner had to be convinced by Italian coaches to team up with Constantini; he had won the Italian mixed doubles title in 2019 with his girlfriend, who is fairly new to the sport, and he wanted to compete with her in Beijing.

Earlier, Sweden’s Almida De Val and Oskar Eriksson won Olympic bronze with an emphatic 9-3 victory over Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat of Great Britain. De Val, who “bugged” Eriksson to play the mixed doubles discipline with her via text messages, is an Olympic rookie, like Constantini.

Eriksson, who won Olympic bronze in 2014 and silver in 2018 with men’s skip Niklas Edin, is the first curling athlete to win three Olympic medals. The Swedish men start against China on Wednesday evening.