Fansided

Olympic curling: Men’s tournament round 1 results and highlights

By Shea Corrigan

Italy's Joel Retornaz (C) follows his stone next to opponents Canada's players Marc Kennedy (R), Kevin Koe (L) and Brent Laing during the curling men's round robin session between Canada and Italy at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung on February 14, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / François-Xavier MARIT (Photo credit should read FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP/Getty Images)
Italy's Joel Retornaz (C) follows his stone next to opponents Canada's players Marc Kennedy (R), Kevin Koe (L) and Brent Laing during the curling men's round robin session between Canada and Italy at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympic Games at the Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung on February 14, 2018. / AFP PHOTO / François-Xavier MARIT (Photo credit should read FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARIT/AFP/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit

The first round of the Olympic men’s curling round robin tournament took place on Tuesday evening stateside. Here are the results and scores.

Ten countries will compete in a round robin-style curling tournament to advance into the semifinals and medal matches at the Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics. Denmark, Sweden, Canada, Italy, United States, South Korea, Switzerland, Great Britain, Japan and Norway all sent four-man teams, and eight of those competed in the first of twelve rounds.

Let’s take a look at the results from the first round of the men’s tournament.

USA def. Korea, 11-7

The U.S. had a perfect start to the tournament, notching up 2 well-played points at the end of the first end. Korea quickly responded with two points of their own, but Team USA took a decisive lead with three additional points in the third, pushing the lead to 8-3 after another two ends. But it’s a long game and Korea stayed in it. Up 11-7 at the end of the ninth end, Korea conceded.

Korea will play medal favorite Sweden in the second session. USA is on a bye until session 3, when Shuster’s team will take on Italy.

Sweden def. Denmark, 9-5

Sweden controlled the game from the get-go and whenever Denmark evened (or tried to even) the score, the Swedish responded in decisive fashion. After ten ends, Sweden claimed the victory, 9-5.

Denmark won’t play in the second session; Sweden will take on host team South Korea.

Canada def. Italy, 5-3

The expected gold medalists started things off with a low-scoring match. Both Canada and Italy played heavy defense, and the match was 4-3 to Canada going into the final end. The world leaders in curling scored an extra point then to put it away and notch their first of presumably many wins in this tournament.

Italy plays Switzerland next in the second session while Canada face off with Great Britain.

Great Britain def. Switzerland, 6-5

Another low-scoring match, the Swiss and British scored five points each over 10 ends before going into overtime. Great Britain scored one point in overtime, which was all that was necessary.

Switzerland will see Italy in the second session. Great Britain will get their shot at gold medal favorite Canada.

Standings

  1. Canada (1)
  2. Sweden (1)
  3. USA (1)
  4. Great Britain (1)
  5. Switzerland (0)
  6. Denmark (0)
  7. Italy (0)
  8. Korea (0)

The men’s and women’s tournaments are different from the mixed doubles you may have gotten used to. For one, there are ten ends and eight stones per team per end, amounting to a considerably longer game.

Next: 15 things to know and love about curling

Keep it posted here as the Olympic curling events continue. The session 2 of the men’s round robin curling tournament begins at 6 a.m. ET.

Home/Winter Olympics