Korea, Switzerland to vie for gold in curling competition

It has become ‘history’ already. Team Korea is set to win a medal, and the only remaining question is whether it is gold or silver.

Team Kim, Korean women’s curling team comprising Kim Sun-young (lead), Kim Cho-hee (second), Kim Kyung-ae (third), Kim Eun-jeong (skip) and Kim Young-mi (substitute), has advanced all the way to the finals for the first time in history to secure at least the silver medal. Now, the team is aiming for the top place.

Team Kim beat Canada (Team Einarson) 9-6 in a semifinal match of the 2022 World Women’s Curling Championships of the World Curling Federation, which took place in Prince George, Canada Sunday. Korea will compete with Switzerland (Team Tirinzoni) in the final match on Monday.

To Korea’s regret, Team Kim failed to advance to the semifinals at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing last month. At the latest competition, however, the team showed renewed commitment to excellence. It swept the first five of the 12 matches to constantly stay in the lead group through the Round Robin qualifying round.

So far, Team Korea has recorded nine wins and three losses to tie for second with Sweden and Canada. The three teams all garnered one win and one loss each, and they were given the final rankings through ‘draw shot challenge,’ with Team Kim advancing to the semifinals by becoming the runner-up.

Switzerland swept all 12 matches in the qualifying round. The team has now 13 wins including one from the semifinal match. Team Korea lost to Switzerland, 5-8, in the qualifying round on Friday. But there is no guarantee that the winner will win again in curling, a sport in which teams end up becoming the winner and loser based on team members’ ability to concentrate, with their skills and performance narrowly different.


Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com