Men's curling at Beijing 2022 Olympics Day 2 round-up: Defending champions United States fall to Sweden in tense second day

Defending champions United States suffered their first loss (4-7) to Sweden in a captivating second day of action in the men’s curling tournament at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics on Thursday (10 February)

In a thrilling repeat of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic final, Niklas Edin and his rink looked every bit the team hunting Olympic gold, the one accolade missing from their comprehensive list of titles.

The Swedish foursome started off by holding Team USA to one in the opening end before adding scores of two in the second and fourth ends to take a commanding lead.

In a make-or-break moment deep into the eighth, U.S. skip John Shuster was presented with the chance to make a double takeout with the final stone to draw the score-line back to level. However, an uncharacteristic error by the five-time Olympian resulted in Sweden stealing one to sit 7-4.

After a blank end in the ninth, the U.S. conceded the game to go 1-1 after the second session of round robin play.

MORE: Niklas Edin, the skip with unfinished business still searching for Olympic glory

Great Britain got their Olympic campaign off to good start by defeating Italy 7-5.

The team skipped by Bruce Mouat, familiar with the 'Ice Cube' having just participated in the mixed doubles tournament, were pushed all the way by Italian skip Joel Retornaz and his men.

Down 1-3 down after the third end, Mouat stepped up to deliver a score of two to bring his team back to level.

After Italy edged back ahead by one in the sixth end, Britain responded by doubling down on their own point-scoring efforts adding two in the seventh and then a steal in eighth for a 6-4 advantage.

Retornaz countered with one in ninth in an attempt to cut the deficit, but it wasn’t enough as Britain