By Aadi Nair
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 20 (Reuters) – Yannick Schwaller’s Switzerland won the Olympic bronze medal in the men’s curling competition by thumping Norway 9-1 on Friday, ensuring they would not go empty-handed after missing out on gold despite an incredible round-robin campaign.
Switzerland won all nine of their round-robin matches at the Milano Cortina Games but lost to world champions Britain in the semi-finals on Thursday.
“I’m just so happy that we got that medal now. We had a truly special week. We played amazing throughout the whole week,” Schwaller said at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.
“It was such a great performance, and if we wouldn’t have won the medal, that would have been tough.”
Schwaller’s medal is not the first in his household, with his father Christof as well as uncle Andreas having guided Switzerland to bronze at the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
“I followed exactly his footsteps. The same medal as well. Wouldn’t have minded if we did one or two better! But no, it’s been amazing,” the 30-year-old said joking.
Brad Jacobs’ Canada face Bruce Mouat’s Britain, the world champions, in the gold medal game on Saturday.
STRATEGIC SHOT-MAKING
Some strategic shot-making from Switzerland in the second end helped them set up a three-pointer for Benoit Schwarz-van Berkel, before they stole another to take a 4-0 lead early on.
After a single for Norway, Schwarz-van Berkel struck again in the eighth end with a runback to add two more points to Switzerland’s tally and give them a 6-1 advantage.
Norway never really threatened to get back into the contest and, after a miss from Magnus Ramsfjell opened a three-point steal for the Swiss in the ninth, the Norwegian skip conceded in some style, doing a 360 spin delivering his last throw.
“It’s our first Olympics and, while we had some shaky games, some good games, we had a really, really good time. And we’re very proud of what we did, making it to the semi-finals for the first time in 16 years for Norway,” Ramsfjell said.
“We’re very happy with what we achieved this week.”
Norway won silver at the 2010 Games in Vancouver.
Asked about the flair with which he delivered the final rock, the 28-year-old added: “We’ve had fun all week, and we’ve tried to show that, have everyone watching and following us feel the engagement, feel the fun that we’re having on the ice.
“This final game wasn’t quite it. We were a bit more down than usual, and we kind of wanted to wrap it up with a nice, funny moment. And that’s why we chose to do the spinaroonie.”
It is Switzerland’s eighth curling medal overall and first since they won the men’s bronze at Pyeongchang 2018, when Schwarz-van Berkel was skip with a different lineup under him.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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