CurlingZone: Sweden, Switzerland to play for Olympic gold

Two European rivals will play for the Olympic gold medal.

By: Cameron Sallaj

After the dust settled in the women's semifinal matchups in Cortina, it was Sweden's Anna Hasselborg and Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni who each gained a three-point edge over their opponents and advanced to the 2026 Olympic gold medal game.

For Sweden's Team Anna Hasselborg, they entered their semifinal against Canada's Team Rachel Homan as the number one seeds, only suffering losses to Canada and South Korea in the round robin. With their Olympic hopes on the line, however, the 2018 gold medalists brought their best to advance to another championship match.

The first half of the game saw a conservative start with neither team able to convert with last stone advantage. Sweden scored singles in the first and third ends while Canada matched with points in the second and fourth. The Swedes then blanked the fifth to head to the second half tied with hammer.

The sixth end saw the only multiple point score as Hasselborg hit for two to take the lead. Sweden then stole one in the seventh after Homan could not connect on her final runback attempt.

Needing to score to stay alive, Homan played a runback in the eighth end for a deuce but rolled the shooter out, only resulting in one. Sweden then hit for one in the ninth end to regain a three-point lead coming home which Canada could not overcome. In the end, Sweden took the game by a final score of 6-3.

In the other semifinal, it was the Alina Paetz show as the Swiss fourth rock thrower curled a tournament high 99 percent to set her team up for victory.

Through the first half, Switzerland played a textbook game, scoring deuces in ends two and four while forcing the US to singles in one, three and five. This flip in hammer allowed the Swiss side to take a one-point lead into the second half and control the rest of the game.

After blanking ends six and seven, Switzerland was forced to just one in the eighth end. They were then able to force the United States to one in the ninth though, staying ahead with last rock coming home. There, Paetz navigated a port on her final stone to count two and send her team to the gold medal game, 7-4 the final.

The gold medal match between Switzerland and Sweden will be a battle between the top two European teams of the quadrennial. Team Hasselborg, as 2018 Olympic gold and 2022 Olympic bronze medalists, has been on the Olympic podium at the previous two Games while no one on Team Tirinzoni holds an Olympic medal. Still, as four-time consecutive world champions and current number two ranked team in the world, the Swiss side will look to bring the same game they brought in the semifinal to climb to the top of the podium.

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