Norway's mixed doubles curlers welcome weight of golden expectations

MILAN, Feb 2 : Norwegian mixed doubles curlers Kristin Skaslien and Magnus Nedregotten won bronze at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in 2018 and followed that up with a silver medal at the Beijing Games four years later.

Now, heading into the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, the obvious question is whether they can climb the final rung of the podium and complete the set with a gold medal.

It has become a familiar refrain for them.

"It's not only you that mentioned like, 'oh, you've now got the bronze and the silver, what about this year?'," Skaslien told Reuters by video call in January.

"Of course, we do think about that gold medal. To be able to be on top of the podium, that's like a dream come true."

Her teammate and husband Nedregotten welcomed the mounting expectations.

"It's a good thing that people are saying that," he added.

"If people are saying this, that means we are showing a pattern. That obviously ... when we won the bronze and then silver.

"Everyone was like, yeah, 'well, you can take the gold next time'. That gives you an urge to show them that, yeah, okay, we can actually try and make that happen. There's no guarantees in sport, but we will try our best."

'PRETTY OPEN' MIXED DOUBLES FIELD

Winning gold will be far from easy and their path to victory will pit them against a number of seasoned competitors.

The Norwegians are part of a field which includes defending champions Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner of Italy, Britain's 2021 world champions Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat and 2023 world champions Korey Dropkin and Cory Thiesse of the United States.

"There are many teams that have the opportunity to get that gold medal this time. If everything goes according to plan and we play our best game, then we are