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At one end of the ice was the brother, pumping his fists. At the other was the sister, jumping up and down with her broom in her hand and a look of disbelief on her bespectacled face.
Isabella and Rasmus Wrana, Sweden’s first-ever team of siblings at the Winter Olympics, won gold in mixed doubles curling on Tuesday night, beating U.S. pair Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin in Cortina, Italy.
The Wranas persevered through a nailbiter of a championship game in front of a spirited, pro-U.S. crowd and pounced on an opening left by the Americans in the last end. Isabella threw the winning stone and hunched close to the ice, watching her brother sweep until their red stone knocked out the Americans’ yellow rock for a 6-5 victory.
“It’s a perfect shot for me to have, a takeout,” Isabella Wrana said. “But of course you’re nervous. It’s the last shot and you know if you make it, it’s an Olympic gold. But I felt like we kept the calm. We talked about how we’re going to throw it and I knew that I had a really strong sweeper.”
The Americans made history by getting this far. They became the first U.S. team to medal in Olympic mixed doubles, and Thiesse is the first American woman to medal in Olympic curling.
“It’s been a long time coming, and this is a really big day for USA Curling and for women’s curling in the U.S. I hope that I can bring this medal home and inspire the next generation of women to be up on that podium someday,” Thiesse said.
The Wrana siblings grew up as rivals and were coached by their father, Mats Wrana.
Their current coach, Alison Kreviazuk, said she saw them work on communication throughout their run.
“They’ve got two different personalities out there, so it’s finding that mix of how they can complement each other,” Kreviazuk said. “Figuring out how to talk with each other, I think that they’ve really, really nailed it over the past couple years, and it’s showcased.”
2024 world champions
Throughout the match, the Wranas enjoyed a somewhat silent camaraderie with their small contingent of fans. The two remained stoic while Dropkin played to the crowd, whipping up the loud American supporters.
The Wranas won the world title in 2024. Thiesse and Dropkin won at worlds a year earlier.
The Swedish duo started their Olympic bid on stumbly legs, losing three games in a row in the round robin. The skid prompted the Swedish media to label their Olympic bid a “Curlingfiasko.”
But they managed to turn it around and won most of their remaining matches.
It was a heartbreaker for the Americans, who enjoyed roaring support. An American curler screamed from the rafters, “Show me your biceps!” Dropkin obliged.
Thiesse and Dropkin are based in Duluth, Minnesota, and have full-time jobs. Thiesse is a lab technician and Dropkin a real estate agent. Dropkin is engaged and Thiesse is married.
They were classmates in college. Dropkin asked Thiesse to be his mixed doubles partner after a failed qualification run for the Beijing 2022 Games. She agreed and they were world champions a year later.
Brits topped round-robin standings
Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner won bronze, defeating Britain 5-3.
It was a bittersweet result for the Italians, the defending Olympic champions whose fans packed the stands throughout the round-robin in hopes to see a repeat. And it was devastating for the Brits, Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat, who were expected to make the final after exiting the round-robin with the most wins of any pair.
They faltered against exacting throws from Mosaner and Constantini, who hails from Cortina and has become a darling of this stadium. The British duo walked off the ice dejected.
The Italians, who said after their 9-8 loss to the United States in the semifinals they had given their opponents too many chances, were miserly from the start in the bronze-medal clash.
The world champions did well to limit Britain’s scoring opportunities and steal points at every opportunity to build a 3-2 lead heading into the sixth end.
In that end, Britain set up three stones in scoring position, but under tremendous pressure, Constantini threaded her final shot through a narrow gap and onto the button to clinch a crucial point.
“The loss in the semifinal yesterday was a tough moment, but we relaxed yesterday night and had dinner and a drink with our family. And we came back stronger today on the ice,” Mosaner said.
“We did a good job and a great performance to take the bronze. Four years ago, we won the gold medal. This year, it wasn’t possible, but we know it’s the Olympics, and all the teams are at a high level.
“We had a good week overall, up and down, some roller-coaster,” Mosaner added. “But at the end we were where we wanted to fight for a medal.”
Italy controlled the closing stages, restricting their opponents to one point in the penultimate end before scoring one more with their powerplay to secure victory, sparking massive celebrations from the partisan crowd at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.
Constantini and Mosaner had beaten the British duo three times previously, once at the Beijing Games in 2022 and twice at last year’s world championships including in the final, but they lost 9-6 when the pairs met in the round-robin stage in Cortina.
For Britain’s Mouat and Dodds, it marked another crushing fourth-place finish after also missing out on a medal in Beijing, though this disappointment might sting even more in light of their impressive round-robin performance.
“It was a tight game,” Dodds said.
“We had chances and we probably just didn’t capitalize on them. It was a lot stronger performance than last night. That was the one thing we wanted to do.
“And the Italians played really well. If we had a half shot, they really capitalized on that. Congratulations on them getting the bronze medal.”
Mouat and Dodds were among the leading hopes for Britain, which has yet to pick up a medal at the Games.
Curling provided Britain’s only two medals four years ago in Beijing — gold won by Eve Muirhead’s team, which featured Dodds, and a silver for the Mouat-led men’s squad.
The men’s curling competition begins Wednesday and the women’s on Thursday.
CBC Sports’ Devin Heroux sat down with Rachel Homan, who will be aiming for an Olympic medal after missing the curling podium in 2018 and mixed doubles podium in 2022.
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