Who's in the way?
Thirteen rounds of the Olympic mixed doubles tournament begin Wednesday. The Czech pair Zuzana and Tomas Paul play the first round (Wednesday, February 2) against a married couple from Norway (Skaslien, Nedregotten). The opponents brought home a bronze medal from their previous participation at the Winter Olympics after the Russian duo was caught doping. The second session pits the Swedes (de Val, Eriksson) against the Czechs. They are followed by the Australians (Gill, Hewitt), Italians (Constantini, Mosaner), Brits (Dodds, Mouat) and the Swiss (Perret, Rios). The final third Round Robin menu includes USA (Persinger, Plys), Canada (Homan, Morris) and China (Fan Suyuan, Ling Zhi). The starting list is full of medalists from the 2018 Olympics, in addition to the aforementioned Norwegians, Canada's Morris and the two Swiss representatives. The top four of the ten participants will advance to the play-offs, playing the semi-final matches on Monday 7 February 2022, with the bronze medal fight and final match to be played the following day. The Czech representatives enter the competition with their options open and with the determination to fight for every win, every end and every stone.