Sweden started defending its women’s Olympic curling title with a victory against Japan

The reigning Olympic women’s curling champion Sweden defeated Japan by 8:5 at the start of the women’s curling tournament in Beijing, and the world champions from Switzerland won by 6:5 against Great Britain.

The Swedes, led at this Olympics by 32-year-old Anna Hasselborg, were losing by 2:3 in the half of the match, but turned over with three points in the sixth and eighth ends. The Japanese and their skipper Satsuki Fujisawa returned only one point in the ninth end and the tenth was not needed for the final 8:5.

The Swiss, who became world champions last May in Calgary, prevailed over Britain after an additional end. Alina Patz and her teammates equalized against the British team led by Eve Muirhead in the tenth end then added the winning sixth point in the extra time.

The US team led by Tabitha Peterson started the tournament with a 9: victory in seven ends against the representatives of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), led by Alina Kovaleva. The Denmark team led by Madeleine Dupont won by 7:6 against host China with captain Han Yu.

Later today, the Olympic runner-up, the Republic of Korea, faces Canada in its first match of the tournament.