 South Korea's Kim Seon-yeong and Jeong Yeong-seok (Photo: World Curling) scored a massive upset win over the US for their first win at the Milano-Cortina Games. By Cameron Sallaj It has been a difficult start to the Olympic Games for the Korean duo of Kim Seon-yeong and Jeong Yeong-seok who found themselves at the bottom of the standings heading into their sixth game Saturday night. With blowout losses to Sweden and Great Britain and lopsided results against Italy, Switzerland and Czechia, the pair faced the United States' Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin, looking to secure their first win. Starting with the hammer, Korea opened the scoring in the first with a count of one before taking a steal in the second to go ahead by two. For the next four ends, neither team could get anything generated with the hammer, resulting in four consecutive single points. After six, South Korea led 4-2 with the Americans using their power play in seven. Attempting a split to count two in seven, Thiesse's final rock did not curl enough, and she spun through the rings, giving Korea a steal of one and a three-point lead coming home. Despite this, the Americans played a textbook final end, giving Cory Thiesse the opportunity for a runback to count four on her last stone. She made contact, but only moved the Korean stone far enough to count three, sending the game into an extra end. Facing two on her final stone in nine, Kim Seon-yeong made sure of the win for Korea with a draw to the Olympic rings. This gave Kim and Jeong their first win of the Games while the United States suffered just their second loss. Since winning the Korean Olympic Trials in July, Kim and Jeong have dominated the tour season, climbing to number two in the world and securing a title in Mississauga. In December, they secured the tenth and final spot at the Olympics by defeating world number one ranked Australia 10-5. This sent Kim Seon-yeong to her third consecutive Games after playing for the women's Kim Eun-jung rink in 2018 and 2022 while Jeong Yeong-seok made his debut. Now with their first win against one of the tournament favorites, the South Koreans will look to build on this momentum in their final three games against Estonia, Canada and Norway. Despite being mathematically eliminated, the pair will try to climb the standings as much as they can to finish the Games on a high note. Olympic Mixed Doubles Standings - Draw 9 Great Britain (Dodds/Mouat): 7-0 The United States (Thiesse/Dropkin): 4-2 Italy (Constantini/Mosaner): 4-2 Sweden (Wrana/Wrana): 4-3 Switzerland (Schwaller-Hurlimann/Schwaller): 3-3 Canada (Peterman/Gallant): 3-3 Norway (Skaslien/Nedregotten): 2-4 Estonia (Kaldvee/Lill): 2-4 Czechia (Zelingrova/Chabicovsky): 1-5 South Korea (Kim/Jeong): 1-5 |
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Manitoba's Kate Cameron (Photo: Curling Canada) announced on Monday that the team will look different for the new Olympic quadrennial.
