Everything that will happen in Olympic curling today, Feb. 8, because it happened yesterday.
A crazy thing about time change during the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games is that it basically gives us all the ability to see the future. Today is Thursday, Feb. 8. It is morning here in America. Look at an Olympic schedule and you might think, yes, there is so much curling planned for today, Feb. 8. Specifically, the first two sessions of round-robin play in the mixed doubles tournament are scheduled for today, Feb. 8.
But, lo, we already know what happened in those first two sessions. Because that is the beauty of time travel/time zones.
Hamilton Horoscope
Impending American heroes and ultimate underdogs, the Hamilton siblings, Matt and Becca, are ranked 8 in the world, which is admittedly not great. (There are eight teams in the tournament, though it’s not a 1-to-1 seeding.) But they are about to have a wonderful day.
First, they’ll win their session 1 match against the Olympic Athletes of Russia and truly, it was never in doubt. They’ll look great, relaxed and totally comfortable on the Olympic ice. Truly inspiring stuff.
By the end of the first match, the wider winter sports will be made aware of the siblings’ fandom hashtag: #HamFam.
Then, they’ll face a tougher contest in the form of Canada. For four ends, they’ll trade points — the Hamiltons’ ability to slide stones into what look like impossible positions, i.e. ability to curl, is pretty amazing — before Canada takes three points in one end. Despite playing valiant catch, the Hamiltons will lose this one, 6-4.
Still, their medal hopes are very much alive at the end of today, Feb. 8.
Round robin predictions
By predictions, we mean this is actually going to happen.
In the first round the mixed doubles curling round robin, the USA will beat Russia handily, Norway will stave off Canada after making a comeback, Korea will take care of Finland in front of a raucous home crowd and Switerzland will pull off a win in overtime against China.
And in the second round, Canada will beat USA, Russia will find their groove against Norway, Switzerland will handle Finland and China will defeat their hosts.
After the first two rounds, the Olympic mixed doubles round robin standings look like:
- Switzerland (2)
- USA (1)
- Korea (1)
- Canada (1)
- China (1)
- Russia (1)
- Norway (1)
- Finland (0)
Meaning, it’s any team’s game. Except Finland’s. Finland is pretty much out.
You learn something new every day
Courtesy of the enthusiastic commentators and various events of the first two sessions:
- Mixed doubles has its own quirks, like how two stones start placed in predetermined spots on the ice
- There’s overtime in curling! Each team delivers three stones, rather than the usual six.
- If something happens, like, say, there’s concern someone moved a stone and no one knows what to do, or if video replay is even an option, which may or may not happen in the last end of the China-Switzerland game, when two points for China would win the game and one would mean an extra end, what curling commentators describe as “a real pickle,” you have two options: You can leave everything and measure or you can entrust an official to reposition.
- “In the true spirit of curling, you give the opponent the benefit of the doubt,” say, when someone may or may not have accidentally moved a stone. (China will receive one point and lose in overtime.)
- It’s extremely fun but sometimes confusing to hear the crowd lose it for something happening off-screen in the Korea match when you’re watching the live stream of a different game.
- Elsewhere: “This is the fun of mixed doubles curling. Stones really accumulate in the four foot. It’s a real party in the four foot.”
Next: Olympic curling favorites and frontrunners
You can (re-)watch Thursday, Feb. 8’s first two rounds of the mixed doubles round robin tournament by navigating through NBC’s Olympic hub. In Pyeongchang, in the future, the Friday, Feb. 9 festivities (session 3 and session 4) kick off Thursday in the U.S. at 6 p.m. ET.