Olympics-Curling-Despite stacked field, Canadians look to atone for 2018 letdown

By Hritika Sharma

BEIJING (Reuters) – Except Canada’s ice hockey groups, no opponents from the nation are beneath extra strain to convey house Olympic gold than its curlers.

Canadian curling groups have already got the burden of historical past on their shoulders, with the nation being probably the most profitable in Video games historical past with six golds and 11 medals general, however there may be an added layer of expectation this time in Beijing.

John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes gained the inaugural combined doubles gold in 2018 however each the boys’s and ladies’s groups didn’t medal for the primary time after ending fourth and sixth in Pyeongchang.

Canada have turned to veteran skips Brad Gushue, who led his rink to gold on the 2006 Video games in Turin, and Sochi 2014 champion Jennifer Jones to reverse their fortunes.

“We used to suppose if we simply turned up and performed okay then we’d make the play-offs, however now each sport is hard,” mentioned Gushue, who’s returning to the Olympic stage after a 16-year absence.

“We all know we’re championship group however the area is so robust,” the 41-year-old added.

Canada’s redemption arc suffered a hammer blow even earlier than Jones and Gushue took to the ice.

Morris and Rachel Homan missed the combined doubles play-offs by millimetres on Monday, leaving the nation lengthy synonymous with curling dominance with out a reigning Olympic champion.

“Our objective is to discover a method to ensure we’re on the highest of the rostrum,” mentioned Jones, 47, who’s again after lacking qualification for Pyeongchang.

Jones and Gushue should sweep previous a particularly aggressive area, which incorporates the entire males’s and ladies’s medal winners from 2018, to revive Canadian delight and return the game’s conventional heavyweights again to the highest.

Sweden’s Niklas Edin will look to climb the Olympic podium steps after profitable bronze in 2014 and silver in 2018, the place U.S. skip John Shuster’s rink surprised them and the world for a historic gold 4 years in the past.

Reigning ladies’s champions Sweden, led by Anna Hasselborg, are primed to repeat their success whereas Silvana Tirinzoni and her Swiss beginning 4 will probably be desperate to convert latest world championship dominance into Olympic glory.

The primary spherical of the boys’s round-robin matches will probably be performed afterward Wednesday, with the ladies’s competitors beginning on Thursday.

(Reporting by Hritika Sharma; Modifying by Christian Schmollinger)