Great Britain will leave Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games with a clean sweep of the curling competitions after beating Denmark 7-6 in the mixed doubles gold medal match on Thursday (1 February).
The last final of these Youth Olympics was a rematch of the mixed curling gold medal game where the two countries were also finalists, and once again Team GB won the title, with British pair Callie Soutar and Ethan Brewster getting the better of brother and sister team Katrine and Jacob Schmidt.
The Brits began the final brightly, sitting 3-0 up after the opening two ends.
When the Danes responded with two points and a steal of two to take the lead, Soutar and Brewster held on to score three points in the fifth end to hand them a 6-4 lead.
That proved to be a decisive turning point in the match with Denmark only able to produce a score of one in their power play in the sixth. When Britain also added a score of one with their power play the Danes were left to chase a score of 7 in the eighth and final end and it proved too tall of a task for the Schmidts who were thwarted by a final shot from Soutar and only able to score one point.
Soutar and Brewster’s efforts hand Great Britain its first-ever gold medal in mixed doubles curling at any Olympic competition and their second gold in curling at Gangwon. The pair were delighted with the result.
“It feels amazing. It’s just an incredible feeling,” Soutar told Olympics.com after Britain’s win. “What a week it has been. I can’t believe we’ve come out with the gold.
“The game was so close right the way through, there was nothing between us and Denmark. They played absolutely amazingly the whole game and it made it really tough for us.”
Brewster continued: “When I looked down and saw there was only one red I was like, ‘Wow, we’ve just won gold’. My legs were crumbling, I fell to the floor in relief. That last stone that we made was all we needed to win the game.”