British duo Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat get the better of Norway after power failure at curling arena
C
urling fans, rejoice! It is only fitting that the one sport played every single day of the Winter Olympics is the one that opens proceedings at Milano Cortina. Dubbed “chess on ice”, curling may not have the brute force of ice hockey or the airtime of snowboarding, but it is a huge test in precision, patience and handling pressure.
Enter mixed doubles, which has its own subplot straight out of a romcom, with husband-and-wife pairings representing Norway, Canada and Switzerland. Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten came up against familiar foes on Wednesday, having edged Great Britain’s Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat in a semi-final thriller at Beijing 2022, sealing victory with the last stone.
In the much-lower stakes rematch, Dodds and Mouat saw out a 8-6 victory to give Team GB a winning start to their Olympics. The Scottish pair looked unfazed by the early challenge of Nedregotten and Skaslien. Team GB led 4–3 at the break, were pegged back shortly after, but then seized the initiative in the sixth end when Dodds produced a superb shot to win three points.
