 A major upset has Tabitha Peterson (Photo: World Curling) in playoff position. By: Cameron Sallaj Draw 3 of the women's competition in Cortina marked a historic first at the Olympic Games as the United States of America defeated Canada for the first time in women's curling. Even more shocking was to do so, Tabitha Peterson and her Minnesota based rink needed to take down the world number one ranked team. It was Canada's Rachel Homan who began the game with hammer and opted to blank the opening end. The team from the north, comprised of Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes then took two in the second to begin the scoring. After getting forced in the third, Team Peterson, with Cory Thiesse, Tara Peterson and Taylor Anderson-Heide stole in four to level the score. Canada then took one in the fifth to regain the lead 3-2. The first turning point in the match came in the sixth where a string of Canadian errors left Tabitha Peterson a draw to the eight-foot to put four points on the board, massively swinging momentum onto USA's side. Fighting back, Canada managed a score of two in the seventh to cut the deficit to one. In eight, Peterson elected to take one on an open hit rather than roll out and blank, going up 7-5 heading to nine. This decision would ultimately not pay off the following end as the United States gave up three to Canada, putting them in their first deficit since the fifth end. Heading to ten, the Canadians led 8-7. With Canada lying two buried up the center line, USA second Tara Peterson played a runback that removed all three Canadian stones from play. This opened up the four-foot and allowed Tabitha Peterson a draw to the eight-foot to secure the win after Homan just missed on her final double attempt. This win by USA marked the first time an American team defeated Canada in the women's competition at the Olympics. Peterson previously lost a tight 7-6 game to Jennifer Jones at the 2022 Games before pulling out the first win in 2026. Only three games into the Milano Cortina Olympics, Team Peterson are well positioned to make a run at the medal round. So far, they have played three of the favorites coming in and have defeated two of them, knocking off South Korea in the opening draw. In their next game, the team will play Japan's Sayaka Yoshimura in a battle of two teams that came through the last chance Olympic Qualification Event. Now 1-1, Canada's Homan will try to bounce back Saturday with two games against Great Britain's Sophie Jackson and long-time rival Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni. Olympic Women's Standings - Draw 3 Sweden (Hasselborg): 3-0 Switzerland (Tirinzoni): 2-0 The United States (Peterson): 2-1 South Korea (Gim): 2-1 China (Wang): 1-1 Canada (Homan): 1-1 Denmark (Dupont): 1-2 Great Britain (Jackson): 0-2 Japan (Yoshimura): 0-2 Italy (Constantini): 0-2 |
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A major upset has Tabitha Peterson (Photo: World Curling) in playoff position.
