Italy defeats Norway to claim mixed curling gold

BEIJING (AP) — Italy completed a near-perfect Olympics with an 8-5 victory over Norway to win the gold medal in mixed doubles curling on Tuesday.

The win at the Ice Cube capped a dominant performance for Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini, who were undefeated in the round-robin and then advanced to the gold medal match with an 8-1 victory over Sweden.

Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten will take a silver medal back to Norway four years after claiming bronze at the Pyeongchang Games.

Sweden beat Britain 9-3 earlier Tuesday for the bronze medal in a matchup of longtime curling powerhouses. Norway is also a regular on the Olympic podium, earning five medals in the seven Winter Games since the sport returned to the program in 1998.

And then there’s Italy.

The Southern European nation had no tradition to speak of in the sport they referred to as “bocce on ice” before being granted an obligatory spot in the 2006 Turin Olympics as the host. Even now, Italian officials say, there are only three curling clubs and about 400 participants in the entire country.

But Mosaner and Constantini not only earned the first Olympic curling medal in Italian history, they did it with an ease rarely seen in a sport where the outcome can turn on one bad throw of the rock.

Even more: With the 22-year-old Constantini and her 26-year-old partner, the Italians have a likely medal favorite when they host the next Winter Games in Milan-Cortina. (A delegation from the ‎2026 host cities was at the Ice Cube on Tuesday, standing to cheer when Constantini completed a double takeout with her final stone to seal the victory.)

The Norwegians were the reigning bronze medalists — but with an asterisk. They lost in the third-place game in Pyeongchang but