CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Anna Hasselborg's Sweden claimed a 6-5 victory over Switzerland in a tight final at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium on Sunday to become the first women's team to win three Olympic medals overall.
"Team Hasselborg" also won gold at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018 and followed that up with bronze in Beijing in 2022.
Despite their previous successes, they were far from favourites at these Games.
Major life changes in the past Olympic cycle led to a rough spell on the ice as they dealt with lineup variations, with three team members including Hasselborg having pregnancies in 2023.
However, they slowly built up some form ahead of their campaign in Cortina, winning a third European Curling Championships title in November.
They had a strong round-robin campaign and were the first team to qualify for the semi-finals, where they beat Canada, the top-ranked women's team in the world and two-times world champions.
STRONG START
In Sunday's game, Sweden got off to a strong start with a two-pointer and Silvana Tirinzoni's Switzerland twice blanked ends to retain the hammer, before both teams scored a point apiece to leave Hasselborg with a 3-1 lead at the halfway mark.
A couple of perfectly executed draws from Switzerland's last-rock thrower Alina Paetz helped them score two and level at 3-3 in the sixth end.
They then limited Sweden to just a single in the seventh, but as it felt like the momentum was slowly shifting in Tirinzoni's favour, Hasselborg stole a point to ease the pressure.
While Paetz was able to score two in the penultimate end, Hasselborg had the hammer and comfortably took her team over the finish line with a point, aided by a couple of sensational shots from Agnes Knochenhauer and Sara McManus.
For four-times world champions Tirinzoni and Paetz, despite the defeat there will be pride in winning an Olympic medal, the only prize missing from their long and successful careers.
On Saturday, Rachel Homan's Canada beat the United States 10-7 to win bronze.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
