Lillehammer, Norway
Tuesday 16 February 2016

USA and Canada will meet in the final of the Mixed curling event at the 2nd Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, Norway tomorrow (Wednesday 17 February).

The Gold medal game will be played at 09.00 (Central European Time) in the Curling Hall at the Stampsletta Ice Venues. Russia and Switzerland will play for Bronze medals at the same time.

USA beat Russia in their semi-final, 8-6, making amends for their only loss during the round-robin, against the same opponent. The Americans were two points down after the first end, but levelled in the second, before stealing a three in the third. Russia responded with three points of their own before the fourth end break, levelling the scores once again, 5-5.

However, the team skipped by Luc Violette scored another two points in the sixth end and stole one in the seventh to establish a lead that Nadezhda Karelina’s Russian team couldn’t come back from.

In the other semi-final Canada won against Switzerland, 7-5. Canada, skipped by Mary Fay, were in the lead at the fourth end break, 5-1, having scored two points in the second end and stealing three points in the third end.

In the second part of the game Switzerland, led by Selina Witschonke, fought back to 5-6, scoring two points in each of the fifth and seventh ends. However, Canada scored one point in the eighth end, to ensure the win. The Canadians go into tomorrow’s final unbeaten.

They Said It:

Luc Violette; skip USA (after 8-6 win over Russia): "I feel amazing. The game was all over the place. Big shots by both teams, big misses by both teams, but we made big shots when it counted. There were so many turning points. Every end, every shot almost. It was back and forth, back and forth. I know I had a horrible miss in the first end, but then I made two pistols to get the deuce right back, and we had a huge steal of three in the third. We played really well as a team. The final will be a really good game and I cannot wait."

German Doronin; vice-skip Russia: “I cannot explain it in words. It's very bad. We just maybe gave them the game. We had many mistakes in tactics and also in our stones. I think we were a bit nervous, we just need to cheer up now. We need to win the Bronze medals tomorrow. It would be very special to Russia and also to us."

Mary Fay; skip Canada (after 7-5 win over Switzerland): "My team-mates made some great shots, and my job was easy enough. The Swiss team fought back really hard. We got an early lead, but we knew they were going to fight back, and it came down to the last rock. We had to make our shot, but I was completely confident that my team-mates were going to sweep the rock, so my job was easy. I'm sure it will be a tough final, I expect that both teams will come out and want to leave everything on the ice, and everyone comes out playing really well. We are just going to try and go out there and enjoy every end. I mean it will be our last eight ends at the Youth Olympics, so we don't want to let any of that go."

Selina Witschonke; skip Switzerland: "It was not a bad game. We had one end when the other team stole three, there we had too many faults. But, the rest of the game was good. I think we have to get over what happened and give our best tomorrow in the Bronze medal game."

RESULTS, semi-finals:

USA 8-6 Russia; Canada 7-5 Switzerland

DRAW, finals:

GOLD: USA v Canada; BRONZE: Russia v Switzerland

MERGED STANDINGS after semi-finals (W - L):

G Canada 9-0
G USA 8-1
B Switzerland 7-2
B Russia 7-2
Great Britain 6-2
Sweden 5-4
Norway 4-4
Turkey 4-5
Italy 3-5
Korea 3-4
China 2-5
Czech Republic 2-5
New Zealand 1-6
Estonia 1-6
Japan 1-6
Brazil 0-7