Curling-Champions Sweden lose opener at Games, Britain, Canada win

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 11 - Defending Olympic curling champions Sweden suffered a 7-6 defeat by Italy in their opening men's round-robin match at the Winter Games on Wednesday, as skip Niklas Edin's quest for yet another medal got off to a rocky start.

Edin - who won his third medal at the Beijing Games four years ago - had a difficult start as he miscued a shot which allowed Italy to steal a point in the first end, with Sweden levelling the game at 1-1 in the fourth end.

The score took away Sweden's last-stone advantage and Italy immediately made them regret it, as Joel Retornaz nailed a pinpoint takeout to score three points and give the hosts a 4-1 lead at the halfway point.

"A loss is tough but it means more for us to play good curling," Edin said. "The second half, we played really well and maybe outplayed them in terms of we should have scored more points than they did.

"We played well enough to win but we just didn't score enough, so we're going to try to focus harder in the first half and just generate more out of our shots."

Edin hit back with a double takeout to score two and, though Italy scored once more in the seventh, the Swedish skip's draw for two points levelled the game at 5-5 in the eighth end.

Italy scored two in the penultimate end to take a 7-5 lead and a rapidly ticking clock added a sense of jeopardy, as Edin threw his last stone with four seconds remaining on the board and managed just one point to succumb to defeat.

Sweden also lost to Italy in the round-robin stage at the European Championships in November, before going on to win the tournament.

"We've won 16 international championships and I think maybe two of them we went without losses," Edin said.

"So we're going to lose a couple of games here and there. In every championship we played the level is so tough now so it's more about playing good enough curling to get ourselves in into winning positions."

BRITAIN, CANADA WIN

Bruce Mouat, who missed out on a mixed doubles medal with Jennifer Dodds after finishing fourth, led Britain to a 9-4 win over China as the 2025 world champions reaffirmed their status as favourites.

Brad Jacobs' Canada were pushed by 2024 European champions Germany before securing a 7-6 win in an extra end, while the U.S. beat the Czech Republic 8-7, cheered on by a large contingent of supporters at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.

Teams play nine matches in the round-robin stage, which continues on Thursday. The top four advance to the semi-finals next week. The women's competition also begins on Thursday. REUTERS