Canada has won the one curling tournament they weren’t even expected to win.
Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris of Canada took on Jenny Perret and Martin Rios of Switzerland in the mixed doubles curling gold medal match at 8 p.m. Korea Time on Tuesday, Feb. 13, a game that NBC streamed live at the early hour of 6 a.m. ET. (It will air again at 5 p.m. ET on CNBC.) While Switzerland seemed an admirable foe, and was an early favorite to medal in the event, Canada took the match 10-3 in only six ends.
It began even enough. Canada scored the first two points in the first end, but Switzerland responded with two of their own in the second. But Lawes and Morris scored a decisive four in the third end for a lead that Perret and Rios could never quite catch. After gaining their third and final point in the fourth, Switzerland conceded after back-to-back two-point ends pushed Canada’s lead to 10.
Lawes shot 73 percent in the game, pushing her tournament shot success percentage to 74 percent. Morris shot 83 percent both in the game and the tournament. Team Canada’s shot success total was a solid 79 percent.
MEDAL RESULT | Mixed doubles curling
Team Canada
Team Switzerland
Team Russia
Lawes and Morris will both add a gold medal to their existing Olympic collections. Lawes won gold on the women’s team in Sochi 2014 and Morris won with the men in Vancouver 2010. The round-robin loss to Norway in the first round of the tournament marked either curlers first, and to date, only, Olympic loss. Neither will compete in the men’s and women’s tournaments this year, where Canada is strongly expected to pick up two more gold medals.
Next: 15 things to know and love about curling
Curling takes place every day of the Winter Olympics, and continues today with the first of the round robin sessions in the men’s and women’s tournaments.
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