Great Britain's Dodds, Mouat win Olympic mixed doubles curling opener

Great Britain's Jennifer Dodds, right, and Bruce Mouat, compete in a mixed doubles curling match against Sweden at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022, in Beijing. (Nariman El-Mofty/AP Photo)

Great Britain's Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat stole three in the seventh end en route to a 9-5 win over Sweden's Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson in the opening draw of mixed doubles curling at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.

The four mixed doubles curling games marked the start of Olympic competition. The Opening Ceremony is scheduled for Friday.

The Great Britain-Sweden contest featured two expected medal contenders after Dodds and Mouat took gold and de Val and Eriksson captured bronze at last year's world championship.

Along with his mixed doubles title, Mouat led his men's team to a world championship silver and captured two Pinty's Grand Slam of Curling events last season.

On Wednesday, Great Britain broke a 5-5 tie with its three in the seventh end before adding a single in the eighth.

Canada's Rachel Homan and John Morris, who had a bye in Draw 1, will open against Great Britain on Thursday in Beijing (Wednesday at 8:05 p.m. ET / 5:05 p.m. PT).

Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes won gold for Canada in the Olympic debut for mixed doubles in 2018 in Pyeongchang.

In other Draw 1 action, reigning Olympic silver medallists Jenny Perret and Martin Rios of Switzerland lost 7-6 to China's Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi in an extra end.

2018 Olympic bronze medallists Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten also lost their opener, falling 7-6 to the Czech Republic's Zuzana Paulova and Tomas Paul in an extra end.

Meanwhile, Australia's Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt, the first curlers to qualify for the Olympics for their country, lost 6-5 to Vicky Persinger and Christopher Plys of the United States.

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