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The lights went out at the Olympic curling venue before Canada’s Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman powered their way to a near-flawless 10-5 victory over Czechia on the opening day of mixed doubles competition Wednesday in Italy.
The first of Canada’s 207 athletes in action at the Winter Games, they stole a point in the first end against Julie Zelingrova and Vit Chabicovsky, added a steal of four in the second and never looked back.
In the third end, blood from a dead fly was smeared across the ice in the third. A re-throw was required after a pre-placed stone was set in the wrong spot in the fourth.
“If things are out of our control, it might be easy to get frustrated a little bit,” Gallant said. “But we’ve been around long enough to know that that’s not helping too much. So I was proud of the way we handled it.”
Trailing 5-0, Czechia closed to within two points in the third end, but Gallant and Peterman regained their four-point advantage in the fourth.
With Canada leading 7-3, Czechia scored a single in the fifth end with the hammer. However, Gallant and Peterman pulled away in the sixth end with the latter’s soft tap for three.
“That was a dream start,” Gallant said. “But you can’t get too comfortable in doubles, there’s a lot of points to be had … so just happy with the way we carried it through right to the end.”
The Czechs didn’t qualify for the Games until December, earning a berth at the Olympic Qualifying Event in Kelowna, B.C.
A decent crowd was on hand at the 3,450-seat Cortina Olympic Curling Stadium, which also served as a venue at the Cortina Games in 1956. It was a welcome change from the Beijing curling experience in 2022, when spectators weren’t allowed due to COVID-19 restrictions.
‘We’re ready to expect the unexpected’
A gasp could be heard throughout the rink when all but a few house lights went out in the first end. Play was delayed for about five minutes.
“We’re ready to expect the unexpected, and a short power outage is totally fine,” Peterman said. “We just laughed it off and took the time to chat about what we wanted to do.”
In the third end, Peterman noticed a fly on the ice midway down the sheet.
“[It] was freezing in there and I thought maybe Brett was going to have to play in that same path,” she said. “So I just wanted to get it out of the way before he had to throw there, and then I smooshed it, and it bled.
“I smeared blood across the ice, and I was like, ‘Oh God, he’s going to have to draw here, but it was fine.”‘
Chabicovsky said he made a mistake before the fourth end by setting a pre-placed stone in an incorrect position. The umpire noticed it as Zelingrova was making her throw.
A technical timeout was called, and she was allowed to re-throw the rock. Peterman followed with a perfect freeze to help set up an eventual deuce.
“It was an honest mistake,” Gallant said. “I know I’ve done that before, it just wasn’t at the Olympics. I’m glad there’s eyeballs on to catch it.”
Canada returns to the ice for a round-robin match Thursday against Norway at 8:35 a.m. ET.
Morris, Lawes won 2018 gold
Gallant and Peterman, the first athletes named to Canada’s Olympic team, secured Canada’s spot in the Olympic tournament with a sixth-place finish at mixed doubles worlds in Fredericton last May. Four months earlier, the married couple from Chestermere, Alta., went undefeated to win at the Canadian mixed doubles trials.
Gallant and Peterman will try to earn Canada its second medal in the event. John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes won 2018 gold in the Games debut of mixed doubles in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Four years later, Rachel Homan and Morris were fifth in Beijing.
Gallant will also make history at these Games when he becomes the first Canadian curler to compete in two disciplines at the same Winter Games. The five-time Brier champion will join his men’s squad skipped by Brad Jacobs after the completion of mixed doubles on Feb. 10.
Canada has won 12 medals, including six gold, since curling officially returned to the Olympic program at the 1998 Nagano Games.
Curling is on the program every day through the Games’ Feb. 22 finale.
Homan’s Ottawa-based rink will represent Canada on the women’s side in Italy.
In other games Wednesday, Great Britain’s Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds topped Norway’s Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten 8-6.
Sweden’s Isabella Wrana and Rasmus Wrana needed six ends to complete a 10-3 rout of South Korea’s Yeongseok Jeong and Seonyeong Kim. Switzerland’s Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Huerlimann defeated Estonia’s Marie Kaldvee and Harri Lill 9-7.
