Team GB’s mixed doubles curling duo Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat suffered semi-final heartbreak at the Winter Olympics
Team GB’s mixed doubles curling pair Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat saw their medal dreams dashed in a devastating semi-final defeat at the Winter Olympics.
The British duo entered their semi-final clash with Sweden as strong contenders, having topped their round-robin group.
Their sole group stage defeat had come at the hands of the very same Swedish opposition.
However, Sweden proved to be their Achilles heel once more, as Great Britain succumbed to a comprehensive 9-3 defeat, extinguishing their hopes of securing gold or silver.
They now face either Italy in the bronze medal match as they aim for a consolation.
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This marks the second consecutive Winter Olympics where the pair have fallen short of reaching the gold medal match.
Four years ago in Beijing, they also missed out on a podium finish in the bronze medal contest – a result they’ll be desperate to overturn this time.
The pivotal moment came in the fifth end, when errors from both British curlers handed Sweden’s sibling duo Rasmus Wrana and Isabella Wrana a devastating five-point haul on their power play.
That swing pushed the Swedes into a commanding 8-3 advantage.
BBC Sport commentator Steve Cram observed at the time: “The Swedes are trying not to get ahead of themselves but this could be a match-winning moment.”
Sweden added another point in the seventh end to seal an insurmountable lead, prompting the customary handshakes with one end still to play.
BBC Sport’s Richard Winton, reporting from Cortina, added: “Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds leave the arena looking disconsolate, and no wonder.
“They’ve been in this movie before, in Beijing four years ago, and had their heart broken in the bronze-medal match.”
Responding to the loss, Mouat told BBC Sport: “We’re really gutted.
“We’ve had such a good week and it was quite exciting for us to go into this game feeling the way we were feeling but to come out and not even play close to the way we wanted to is hard to put into words really. They were the better team today.”
Dodds has also revealed how they will look to bounce back for the bronze medal match, which will take place at 1.05pm on Tuesday. “We’ll probably speak to our coaches and speak things through and regroup for tomorrow,” she said.
“We don’t want this to affect our chances of a medal tomorrow so we’ll speak about the things that need to be spoken about and corrected and we’ll come out firing tomorrow.”