Italy’s Olympic mixed doubles curling title defense yesterday got off to a winning start, while the US fought back to earn victory on the second day of the round-robin matches at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The eight teams playing mixed doubles opened the long curling tournament on Wednesday, two full days before tonight’s opening ceremony.
The Italian pairing of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner, who are also the world champions, yesterday took command of their contest against South Korea in the second end and were 6-1 up at the halfway mark before cruising to an 8-4 victory.
Photo: Reuters
“To win is always good, especially the first win of the tournament. It wasn’t easy to play because the ice was a little bit tricky with the speed,” Mosaner said.
“It was really amazing to hear from the fans chanting ‘Italia, Italia, Italia,’” he said.
Norway’s two-time Olympic medalists Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten, who were on Wednesday beaten by the UK, lost 8-6 to American curlers Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse, world champions in 2023.
Photo: AP
The Norwegian husband-and-wife duo were leading for a large part of the contest, before their opponents flipped the script in the final end.
“We struggled early on with our draw weight and had a really good fourth end break, refocused, talked about the different speeds and the different paths, and just wanting to communicate that more out on the ice,” Thiesse said.
The Scottish pairing of Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat, the 2021 world champions, continued their winning run by beating Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill 10-5.
Photo: AFP
Swedish siblings Isabella and Rasmus Wranaa also kept pace with the Britons atop the standings, winning their second match 7-4 against Czechs Julie Zelingrova and Vit Chabicovsky, the youngest pairing in the 10-team field.
Four minutes into play on Wednesday, all four games came to a halt due to a power outage at the Olympic Ice Stadium in Cortina, which was built for the 1956 Games. Officials briefly paused the matches after the lights dimmed and flickered, before coming back on about three minutes later.
“I didn’t mind the lights going off,” Mouat joked. “It was a bit of a boogie, a rave ... it was like a nightclub.”
Photo: AP
Teams are to play nine matches in the round-robin stage, which would continue after press time last night, with the top four advancing to the semi-finals next week.
The preliminary games of women’s ice hockey also started last night.
Separately, Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris, a three-time Olympic bronze medalist set to compete in his fourth Winter Games, yesterday said he was “feeling good” following a crash on the slopes that put his status for the big air event in doubt.
“He is feeling good and appreciates the support and well-wishes from fans,” a Team Canada statement said.
McMorris on Wednesday suffered a “heavy crash” after landing a practice run.
He was taken off the mountain on a stretcher and transported to hospital “as a precaution,” Team Canada said.
He has since been released and was scheduled to undergo follow-up testing yesterday afternoon, the statement said.
Heavy snowfall in the past couple of days forced organizers to cancel the first of three training runs for Sunday’s women’s downhill, the International Ski and Snowboard Federation said on Wednesday.
Two other training runs are scheduled for today and tomorrow as organizers expect to have time to prepare the Olimpia delle Tofane piste.
The cancelation of yesterday’s run meant that Lindsey Vonn, the 2010 downhill Olympic champion, and still among the favorites for Sunday’s race, would have to wait another day to test her left knee after she ruptured her anterior cruciate ligament in a crash at a World Cup downhill in Crans Montana, Switzerland, on Friday last week.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is hoping that tonight’s opening ceremony would not be marred by jeers against Americans, and would be a show of respect for athletes from around the world.
There are concerns spectators could boo US Vice President J.D. Vance and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the San Siro or the US team, with the presence of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and US Border Patrol agents a source of anger in Italy.
“I hope that the opening ceremony is seen by everyone as an opportunity to be respectful of each other,” IOC president Kirsty Coventry told a news conference on Wednesday when asked if she had any concerns that US athletes or officials could be booed.
Italian politicians have strongly criticized the presence of ICE agents in the country, despite assurances that there is nothing unusual about the deployment, highlighting how the image of the US has been tarnished in the past few months.
“When we went to the [Olympic] village that is the best reminder of how we should be,” Coventry said. “You see athletes from every walk of life. No one is asking what country they come from or what religion. They are all just hanging out.”
“It was a real opportunity to put into perspective how we could be and so, for me, I hope that the opening ceremony will do that and will be a reminder for everyone how we could be,” she said.
Environmental group Greenpeace yesterday staged a protest in front of Milan’s main cathedral, as the Olympic torch arrived in the city.
An installation depicted the Olympic rings dripping oil, a visual denunciation of companies the environmentalist group accuses of contributing to global warming and threatening winter sports dependent on cold conditions.
“Kick polluters out of the Games,” read one of the banners in front of Duomo in the heart of the city.
Greenpeace, which has a filed a climate-change lawsuit against Eni, has urged the Games’ organizers to cut ties with the Italian energy major.
State-controlled Eni is one of the Games’ premium domestic sponsors.
Greenpeace says that Eni’s fossil-fuel operations undermine efforts to safeguard snow-based sports as temperatures rise.
The Olympic flame, which began its journey across Italy in December after being lit in Rome, reached northern Milan yesterday morning.
Additional reporting by the Guardian and AP
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