Japan skip Fujisawa Satsuki: "Gold is no longer a dream."

Japan's curling development continues apace with the women claiming a second successive Olympic Winter Games medal at Beijing 2022.

After their bronze medal at PyeongChang 2018, the 'Loco Solare' team of skip Fujisawa Satsuki, Yoshida Chinami, Suzuki Yumi and Yoshida Yurika went one better this time.

And while they came up short in the gold medal match against Eve Muirhead's Great Britain rink, Team Fujisawa's exploits can only enhance the growth of a sport which is growing in popularity.

And it's not just their outstanding play which has attracted attention.

At PyeongChang, the team also became known for their snacking during the half-time break or "mogumogu time" (snack time).

Since their bronze medal four years ago, the competition in Japan has increased with Loco Solare needing three wins in a row against Yoshimura Sayaka's Fortius rink to make the Games.

That helped drive them to an even better result in Beijing with Fujisawa paying tribute to that after the final defeat to Great Britain.

"We were not sure that we could represent Japan in these Games," she said.

"We are proud to make it because the level of Japanese curling has improved. The national games helped us grow. So many losses we experienced gave us opportunity to be medallists here.

"I seriously want to thank all the curlers in Japan who helped us grow better."

The 30-year-old added that the silver medal should continue to help the sport thrive."

Fujisawa added, "Today is a big day for Japan’s curling. We stood on the stage of the Olympic curling final, in the sense that winning gold is no longer a dream, that a goal is actually tangible.

"I believe our performance will also encourage more people back home to like curling, play in curling. I am just happy