Korea ends curling journey at Youth Olympics after mixed doubles loss

Korea’s mixed curling duo lost their final round robin match 7-5 against the Czech Republic on Wednesday, finishing the group stage with two wins and three losses and ending the national team’s curling journey in Gangwon.

Korea's mixed doubles curling team of Lee Chae-won, left, and Lee Ji-hun compete during their round robin match against the Czech Republic at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympics at Gangneung Curling Centre in Gangneung, Gangwon on Wednesday. [NEWS1]

GANGNEUNG, Gangwon — Korea’s mixed curling duo lost their final round robin match 7-5 against the Czech Republic on Wednesday, finishing the group stage with two wins and three losses and ending the national team’s curling journey at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympics.

The team of Lee Chae-won and Lee Ji-hun faced off against the Czech Republic’s Julie Zelingrova and Ondrej Blaha at the Gangneung Curling Centre for their fifth round robin match of the tournament.

In the stands for Korea’s final round robin match were plenty of tournament volunteers wearing red and white Gangwon 2024 jackets joined by a scattering of multigenerational families.

Parents switched between reacting to the action on the ice and explaining it to their kids, most of whom seemed no older than their first years of elementary school. The 50-some-seat section nearest to the ice was particularly packed with Team Korea fans, alongside a handful of people cheering for other national teams in the arena.

The Czechs started things off strong, winning two points in each of the first and second ends. Korea put one back in their power-play third end to make things 4-1 and got another point on the scoreboard before the Czech team widened their lead in the fifth end to put it at 6-2.

Hushed murmurs followed the action on the ice as the 42-pound stones slid across the sheet of ice, with the noise of the crowd getting increasingly louder every time a stone approached the house.

Each throw carried a distinct rhythm, with the hollowed-out sound of the stone’s slide across the ice followed by frenzied sweeping before the stone slowed to a stop.

Korea looked to be headed for a comeback after the sixth and seventh ends, entering into the eight end with the score at 6-5, but were unable to see through their campaign, failing to add any points to the board as the Czech team sealed their quarterfinal spot with a 7-5 win.

Korea headed into Wednesday’s match in fourth place on the six-team Group A mixed doubles curling table, sitting behind the teams from Canada, Great Britain and the Czech Republic who were in a three-way tie.

Canada and Great Britain had yet to compete in their fifth and final round robin matches as of press time and were set to face off later in the afternoon. The winner of that match will join seven other teams in the knockout quarterfinal round.

Korea’s four-person mixed curling team also missed out on the knockout stage after finishing fifth on the eight-team Group B table last week.

The Youth Olympics, which began on Jan. 19, will wrap up with a closing ceremony on Thursday.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]