Mixed doubles curling team set for 1st Korean action at Milan-Cortina Games
Members of the Korean women’s national curling team form a large heart at the curling rink of the Jincheon National Training Center in Jincheon, North Chungcheong Province, Jan. 27. Yonhap
MILAN — Korea will have its first competitive action of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Wednesday with the start of the round-robin play in the mixed doubles curling two days prior to the opening ceremony.
The duo of Kim Seon-yeong and Jeong Yeong-seok will take on the Swedish sibling team of Isabella and Rasmus Wrana at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium in Cortina d'Ampezzo, some 400 kilometers northeast of Milan.
Kim is the first Korean curler to compete at three consecutive Olympic Games. She was a member of the silver-medal winning women's team at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics and competed in the women's event again four years later in Beijing.
For this year's Olympics, Kim joins forces with first-time Olympian Jeong, and they grabbed the final Italy-bound ticket by winning a playoff match at the last-chance qualification event in Canada in December.
They are the first Korean mixed doubles team to qualify for an Olympic spot. Korea received an automatic berth as the host country in 2018 when the mixed doubles made its Olympic debut, and the duo of Jang Hye-ji and Lee Ki-jeong went 2-5 to finish fifth. The country did not have a mixed doubles team in 2022.
The Wranas won the 2024 world mixed doubles title in their home country and will now try to earn their first Olympic medal together.
After the Swedish team, Kim and Jeong will have to contend with the reigning Olympic championship team from the home team Italy, Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner, on Thursday. They went undefeated in Beijing to bring Italy its first-ever Olympic curling medal and will take a shot at becoming the first repeat champions in mixed doubles curling.
The 10-team competition also includes Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten of Norway, who claimed bronze in 2018 and silver in 2022. Kim and Jeong will play them next Monday morning.
The Canadian team will feature Brett Gallant, son of the former Korean women's team head coach, Peter Gallant.
After nine round-robin matches, the top four nations will advance to the semifinals set for Monday evening, with the No. 1 seed taking on the No. 4 seed, and the second-ranked team playing the third-ranked tandem.
Both the bronze medal match and the gold medal contest will be next Tuesday.