“Let’s celebrate tonight”
Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg recovered from a wild loss in the semifinals to beat Switzerland 9-7 to claim the women’s Olympic bronze medal in Beijing.
The win meant Sweden claimed medals in all three Olympic disciplines in 2022, including bronze in mixed doubles and gold in men’s team play.
Hasselborg’s 2018 Olympic champions took a 3-1 lead into the fourth end against Silvana Tirinzoni’s foursome. The Swedes added a huge three-ender in the sixth end for a 6-2 advantage.
Swiss fourth thrower Alina Paetz had a shot for three in the seventh, but missed and scored only two. The two-time defending world champions now trailed 6-4.
Sweden then scored a pair, followed by a Swiss three and Hasselborg came home leading 8-7.
She made her final draw to clinch the medals.
“It’s huge to go home with a medal,” said Hasselborg. “To be at two Olympics and go home with two Olympic medals is huge.
“(We are) incredibly proud and a little bit relieved. It was a tough loss yesterday, but we regrouped so well. I’m so proud of the grit that the team is showing.
“For this tournament the bronze feels like a gold with all the struggles we have been through, and the way we composed as a team.”
Tirinzoni, who won the round robin at the Ice Cube in Beijing, noted Sweden’s early leads.
“I don’t know, we made some unusual mistakes,” Tirinzoni said. “I have no explanation for that, actually. I felt before the game that we were ready, but then I don’t know what happened on the ice.
“I’m sure we played a great week, we just weren’t on the right side the last two games so that’s tough of course. I don’t think we’re going to analyze the last two games tonight, we need some time to work on that. It’s a big disappointment, of course.”
Hasselborg’s team met up with Niklas Edin’s Olympic men’s champions before the match.
“Right before the game, we met them in the mixed zone and we hugged them. We said: ‘let's celebrate tonight.’ I'm so happy for them winning the gold.”
Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa takes on Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead in the women’s championship final, a rematch of the PyeongChang 2018 bronze medal game.