A Good Read for U.S. Men

The ice is curling, and the United States men are rolling in the first round of the Olympics.

With slower and swingier ice that allowed them to take more chances, the Americans beat Switzerland, 7-3, on Friday and moved into a second-place tie in the Olympic curling round-robin tournament.

“Watching the girls go in the afternoon, we noticed the ice was swinging a little bit more,” U.S. second Joe Polo said. “You can get more aggressive. It’s nice to get aggressive because you don’t have so many close games.”

The Americans took charge in the seventh end, or inning, stealing a point even though Switzerland had the big last-rock advantage known as the hammer.

Final shooter Pete Fenson used his first shot to clear a Swiss stone away from the scoring target and leave a U.S. one in position to score. That gave the Americans a 4-1 lead; Switzerland got two in the next end, but the U.S. answered with two in the ninth when the Swiss couldn’t knock a U.S. stone off the white eight-foot circle.

Also Friday, Finland beat Canada, 8-7, leaving both teams tied with the Americans at 4-2. Britain took sole possession of first place after beating Sweden, 8-2, in seven ends.

Upstart Italy continued to thrill the home crowd, beating New Zealand, 6-5, in 11 ends to improve to 3-3.

Russia beat the U.S. women’s team, 8-7, in an extra end, ending any real chance of the Americans reaching the Olympic medal round.

The United States dropped to last place at 1-5. There is a remote possibility it could get into the medal round through a tiebreaker -- if a lot of things go wrong for a lot of other countries.

“I don’t think so,” U.S. Coach Neil Doese said. “I haven’t even thought about that.”

In other women’s games, Sweden beat Switzerland, 9-7, and Canada beat Britain, 9-3, in nine ends. Norway beat Italy, 9-7, in 11 ends.