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| Korea's skip Kim Eun-jung launches a stone during a women's curling match against Sweden at the Gangneung Curling Center, Monday. Korea won 7-6. / Yonhap |
Korea beats Sweden to repeat giant-killing act
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Korean women's curling team continued its surprising ascent at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics by defeating Sweden 7-6, Monday.
At the Gangneung Curling Center, Korea handed the league leader Sweden its first loss at the PyeongChang Games.
In the match, Sweden took the lead after the first end but Korea responded quickly in the next end. Adding two more points in the third, Korea solidified its lead to 3-1.
The host country scored multiple points twice in the sixth and eighth ends. Sweden fought hard late on, scoring two points in the ninth end.
With the score 7-5 in favor of Korea, the Swedish curlers succeeded in scoring in the 10th end but couldn't close the gap, gaining only one point.
Before facing Korea, the world No. 5 Sweden had maintained its undefeated status with five wins, but Korea delivered another giant-killing performance. Korea which ranks No. 8 already created chaos after beating No. 1 Canada, No. 2 Switzerland and No. 4 Great Britain in the round robin sessions.
With the win, Korea sits atop the standings together with Sweden recording five wins and one loss. Japan ranks third with four wins and two losses and Canada, which defeated Japan 8-3, Monday, shares fourth spot with China and Great Britain on three wins and three losses.
The host country is also eyeing the semifinals. In the 10-team curling league, the top four teams will advance to the semifinals. Korea will play the United States, Tuesday at 2:05 p.m.; Russia, Wednesday at 9:05 a.m.; and Denmark the same day at 8:05 p.m.
Team skip Kim Eun-jung said her team "had to concentrate a lot more" against curling powerhouse Sweden.
"Sweden is very aggressive in their shot-making and strategy. I think they're one of the top teams in the world and that's why we had to concentrate a lot more," she said.
Curler Kim Kyeong-ae said the 7-5 loss to Japan on Thursday was a bitter pill for her team.
"The cause of defeat against Japan was that we really wanted to beat them," Kim said. "So I thought I had better make up my mind to concentrate on my shot (rather than thinking about the opposition). That makes me produce good shots."
Coach Kim Min-jung said her team's victories were due to the experience the members gained in matches against strong teams on the international stage.
"We could improve by competing with others. Against strong teams on the international stage, we could realize we have often been shaky when against strong teams, but now we have overcome this with our training program," the coach said.
Though it is not a weird situation that every member of the team shares the same surname here, the foreign media has dubbed them "Team Kim" for filling its roster with curlers surnamed Kim. They are skip Kim Eun-jung, Kim Kyeong-ae, Kim Seon-yeong, Kim Yeong-mi and Kim Cho-hi.
The local Korean press also nicknamed them "garlic girls," because all of them attended same high school in Uiseong, North Gyeongsang Province.
The provincial city, 330 kilometers southeast of Seoul, is best known for garlic production.
It remains to be seen whether the Korean curlers can write their names into Olympic history. International media outlets are also paying keen attention to the Korean curlers.
The Wall Street Journal introduced them as some of the surprise stars of the PyeongChang Olympics.
"The South Korean women's curling team has emerged as the breakout star of the PyeongChang Olympics, an overachieving underdog that has burst into medal contention in a sport that South Korea had virtually no presence in just a few years ago," the U.S. daily newspaper reported Sunday.
In the other women's curling matches, Switzerland smashed the Olympic Athletes of Russia 11-2 and the U.S. defeated Denmark 7-6.
Struggling men's curling adds another win
The Korean men's curling team got its second Olympic win after beating Italy 8-6, Monday.
Against the world No. 13 Italy, the world No. 16 team scored three points in the first end, and Italy responded with one point in the following end. The two teams had a neck-and-neck battle with each other. Down by only one point in the 10th end, Korea added one more point to defend its lead.
Korea now has two wins and five losses, placing bottom in the standings with Italy and Denmark. Sweden tops the standings with six wins and one loss, followed by Switzerland with five wins and two losses. Canada and Great Britain are joint third with a 4-3 record.
With only the top four teams making it to the semifinals, Korea is scheduled to play two more round robin sessions with Switzerland, Tuesday, and Japan, Wednesday.
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