Sweden Hammers Its Way to Gold

Anna Svaerd hovered over the last rock of the Olympic women’s curling tournament, watching its path to its target. She slid alongside, waiting for the signal from her Swedish teammate that would tell her to sweep it along faster or let the stone go through.

But vice-skip Eva Lund was silent. And Svaerd thought something was wrong.

Not a chance.

Anette Norberg’s shot -- the last of the extra end -- ricocheted off the last two Swiss rocks for a gutsy double-takeout that gave Sweden a 7-6 victory on Thursday night in the Olympic gold medal game.

“In the middle of the game, it’s not that difficult,” Norberg said. “But during the pressure of the Olympics, it’s quite a difficult shot. I knew if I just hit a bit of the right one, it would go where it should,” she said.

Canada beat Norway, 11-5, in eight ends earlier to take the bronze. Sweden opened a 5-2 lead after seven ends, or innings, of the gold-medal game, and needed just to play defensively to pick up an easy victory of its own.

The Swiss scored two in the 10th and final end of regulation to force an extra round. But the Swedes had the right to throw last -- the hammer -- in the 11th, an advantage so big it is considered to be worth at least a point to the team that holds it.

Switzerland put one stone in the middle and piled guards in front of it before Swedish second Cathrine Lindahl took out two stones with one shot to get the edge back. With her first stone -- Switzerland’s second-to-last of the game -- Swiss skip Mirjam Ott curled her rock around a guard, but it didn’t get inside the Swedish rock that was sitting on the lip of the red 4-foot circle.

Norberg cleared one of the stones away from the front so she would have a clean shot at the target, or house, if she needed it. The Swiss talked over their options for their last stone, and Ott knocked Sweden out of the zone.

If Norberg could convert with the hammer, the gold medal was Sweden’s.

After a timeout, Norberg pushed out of the hack and let the rock slide. It bounced first off one yellow-handled Swiss rock and then the other, clearing them out of the scoring zone.

As it came to rest in the white 8-foot circle -- alone in the house -- the Swedes celebrated.

*

MEDAL WINNERS

WOMEN

GOLD

* Sweden (Norberg, Lund, Lindahl, Svaerd, Bergman)

SILVER

* Switzerland (Ott, Beeli, Spaelty, Moser, Kormann)

BRONZE

* Canada (Kleibrink, Nixon, Bakker, Keshen, Jenkins)