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Norwegian overture.

The first match of the Czech Mixed Doubles curling team at this year's Olympic Games made the spectators almost forget about the pandemic and the related travel and accreditation problems of the Beijing Olympics participants. Norwegian opponents - Skaslien, Nedregotten were a suitable opening rival for Zuzka and Tomas. For many years these pairs have been meeting at international tournaments, playing balanced matches and knowing each other well. The nervousness that logically accompanies the beginning of any extremely important tournament marked the performance of the Czech pair more at first. Although in the pre-match practice they managed to get the advantage of the last stone for the first end, but only in the third end the stones came that brought the points to our colours and the score was tied. The ice, which was very good at the beginning, started to change a little bit, became harder, and the individual tracks were quite different from each other. When the match seemed almost lost (3 : 6 after seven ends), the Czechs responded to the Norwegians' mistakes with an improved performance and forced a ninth end. In the end, a stone placed behind the tee line was enough to win the Czech victory, which remained in scoring position after Kristin Skaslien rolled her stone into a worse position after a difficult runback. A valuable opening win.