Beijing Winter Olympics | Curling Roundup: European Team Strong Gold Medal Chinese team missed the final four

Live bar February 20 news, the Curling Event of the Beijing Winter Olympics, known as the "Fairy Fight" by the curling community, ended on the 20th, and 3 gold medals were spent on the European team. Sweden won the men's gold medal for the first time, the United Kingdom won the women's gold medal for the second time, and the Italian mixed doubles team won the top. Although the Chinese team won the first battle and once even defeated the strong opponent, it failed to advance to the semi-finals. Among them, the men's team ranked fifth, the women's team ranked seventh, and the mixed doubles ranked ninth.

This curling event is full of strong players, Sweden men's team captain Edin played in the Winter Olympics for the fourth time, previously won the fourth, third and second places, has gathered all the major championships except the Winter Olympic gold medal; the Captain of the U.S. men's team Schuster, as the defending champion, participated in the Winter Olympics for the fifth time; the Captain of the Canadian Men's Team, Gu Xiu, won the Turin Winter Olympics Championship, after 16 years, he and one of his partners at the time, Nichols, played in the Winter Olympics for the second time; the Canadian women's team Captain Jones is 47 years old and has won the Sochi Winter Olympic Championship The Chinese women's team Wang Rui and Jiang Xindi participated in the Winter Olympics for the second time.

On February 2, two days before the opening ceremony, the curling mixed doubles competition kicked off at the National Aquatics Center "Ice Cube". In the first match, the Chinese duo of Fan Suyuan / Ling Zhi narrowly defeated the Swiss combination after an overtime match. In the second battle, they defeated the new Australian team at the Winter Olympics. Just when the pair gradually "went out of the circle" and attracted the attention of sports fans, the shortcomings of the unstable state of the young team were highlighted, and the foreign strong teams gradually entered a better situation. The Chinese duo ended their Olympic journey with seven consecutive defeats and eventually ranked ninth out of ten participating teams.

In the mixed doubles match, the unknown Italian duo of Constantini/ Mosana came out of nowhere, winning eleven consecutive victories with its aggressive style of play. The Norwegian duo of Skarslien/Nedregoten and the Swedish duo of Devar/Eriksson finished second and third respectively.

After the start of the men's and women's team events, the Chinese men's and women's teams lost two games each. Until February 11, the Chinese men's team defeated the Danish team, allowing the Chinese curling team to win again after 8 days and 11 matches. Since then, the Chinese men's team has defeated the Italian team and won two consecutive victories. However, the multi-time World Championship champion British team, the defending champion United States team, and the multi-time Winter Olympic champion Canada team have given the Chinese team three consecutive defeats by virtue of their strength and experience advantages. In the last two battles that have been basically out and are related to honor, the Chinese team that put down its psychological baggage defeated Norway and Switzerland respectively, and finally finished fifth with 4 wins and 5 losses.

The "plot" of the Chinese women's team is relatively complex, and it is not strong when it encounters weakness, and it is not weak when it encounters strength, and eventually becomes a spoiler of the situation in the top four. After losing to Denmark, Switzerland and the United States, the Chinese team changed sides for the first time, adjusting the in-form "post-00" captain Han Yu from fourth base to third base. This change of team has received miraculous results, and the Chinese team Lian Ke PyeongChang Winter Olympics top two Sweden and South Korea seem to smell the hope of advancing to the final four.

However, the Chinese women's team then lost to Japan 2:10. The team made adjustments again, using the substitute team member Jiang Xindi, Han Yu sat on the bench, and Wang Rui took over as the captain. Wang Rui's first match was defeated by the Russian Olympic Committee 5:11, giving the opponent the only victory of the tournament. In the next two games, Wang Rui played well, repeatedly offering key hits and advances at key moments, helping the Chinese team to defeat the British team and the Canadian team in succession. On the last day of the round robin, the Chinese team still has hopes of advancing to the final four. In the end, the Chinese team ranked seventh with 4 wins and 5 losses.

In this competition, the European team performed strongly, winning the top three in the mixed doubles and winning the men's and women's gold medals. Canada and the United States of the Americas sent six teams to compete in full, but only the Canadian men's team won a bronze medal. For the first time since curling returned to the Winter Olympics in 1998, there were no American teams in the top two teams in each minor event.

In the men's field, Sweden played a seven-game winning streak in the round robin before being terminated by the British team. The two teams met again in the final and both played well, with a 90% success rate for the United Kingdom and 94% for Sweden. In the end, Sweden won 5:4 through the overtime round. Canada won the bronze medal over the United States, and captains Gu Hugh and third baseman Nichols returned to the Olympic podium after 16 years.

On the women's side, the two teams that took the "last train" of the Winter Olympics through the qualification tournament met in the final. In the end, the "four dynasties" Mullhead of the Winter Olympics led the LinkedIn national team to a 10:3 victory over the Japanese team led by Fujisawa in May, and finally realized the dream of the winter Olympic gold medal. Sweden beat Switzerland 9-7 to finish third.

In this competition, the Chinese team participated in the full quota as the host, but the three teams unfortunately did not advance to the final four. The Chinese team not only experienced the highlight moments of the champion and runner-up of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and the victory over the final women's champion, the British team, but also the difficult period of conceding defeat in advance after consecutive big scores.

The lack of experience in international competitions, the lack of time for the team to run in, and the unstable mentality of the young players at key moments are the main problems that the coaches and team members of the Chinese team talked about after the game. Because of this, in the face of the "grinding pot" in the middle of the schedule, the Chinese team's adaptability is not as good as that of the strong team that has been competing in the competition for many years; in the handling of some key pots, it is not decisive and confident enough, and even there are low-level mistakes such as shooting violations.

"The Chinese players are very strong, but they have less experience in international competitions. They don't know enough about their level. Chinese coach Lin Holm has said many times that if the Chinese players can accumulate more experience through actual combat and do a good job in every pitch with the pursuit of perfection, the prospects are promising.

It is worth mentioning that although the Results of the Chinese Team are average, they have left many highlights of the shining sportsmanship inside and outside the arena. For example, the Chinese mixed doubles team presented the "ice pier" badge to the American team after the game, and the American team gave back the badge of "courtesy exchange"; the Chinese men's team repeatedly carried forward the "curling spirit" and politely rejected the "let the pot" proposed by the opponent after inadvertently violating the law, which was highly praised by all walks of life.

(Xinhua News Agency)