Winter Olympics: Team GB's women curlers guarantee medal after epic comeback
The outfit beat Sweden despite going 4-0 down early on in the semi-final; they will now face Japan in Sunday’s gold medal match; it's the first time Great Britain's women have a chance at winning a curling gold medal in 20 years
By Emma Thurston
Last Updated: 18/02/22 8:30pm
Team GB have guaranteed another medal at the Winter Olympics after the women's curling team defeated Sweden 12-11 to book a place in the gold medal match.
Skip Eve Muirhead and her team went 4-0 down after the first end before clawing the game back and winning a nerve-racking extra end, the 11th of the match.
The team had held an 11-8 lead going into the 10th end before Anna Hasselborg produced brilliance to level the contest and force the extra end.
Muirhead and her team-mates remained calm though and were able to banish the memories of the Swedish team beating them in the semi-final in PyeongChang.
Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds, Hailey Duff and reserve Mili Smith will now prepare to face Japan in Sunday's gold medal match. It is the first time Great Britain's women have a shot at winning a curling gold medal in 20 years.
The semi-final victory is a particularly significant one for skip Muirhead. In Vancouver back in 2010, she became the youngest skip ever to lead a team at the Winter Olympic Games at 19-years-old.
Muirhead returned in 2014 and lost to Canada in the semi-finals, before falling again at the same stage to Sweden in 2018.
"Third time lucky," she said to BBC Sport. "I've lost two semi-finals before and I was desperate for it. These moments and opportunities don't come around very often.
"I really, really was so proud of these girls. It's such a team game out there and all week we're really dug deep. I'm pretty speechless right now, but what a moment. It sounds amazing to say that we're in the Olympic final."
The women's gold medal match is currently scheduled to take place at 1.05am (GMT) on Sunday morning.
The day prior Team GB's men's curling team will go for gold against Sweden. The men's gold medal match had its start time changed for European audiences, with it now taking place at 6:50am (GMT) on Saturday morning.
"We've got tomorrow off so we'll take tonight to celebrate among ourselves," Muirhead added.
"We'll be here supporting the men and then we need to knuckle down. We've still got one game to go and, when you get to that final, no one wants to come away with a silver medal. We're going to fight hard for the gold now."
