Jennifer Jones led Team Canada to gold in women’s curling, defeating Team Sweden 6-3.
The Canadian skip, who wore gold eyeliner for the gold medal game, made Olympic history. She is the first woman to go undefeated throughout an Olympic curling tournament.
Jones was dominant throughout the entire tournament, trailing in only eight of 75 ends.
This is Canada’s first gold medal in women’s curling since 1998, when the late Sandra Schmirler led Canada to the top of the podium.
The gold medal match got off to a tight start. Team Canada started with the hammer. It escaped the first end with a single point. In another tight end, Team Sweden took one in the second to tie the game at one. Jones then blanked the third end, keeping the hammer.
Jones made use of the hammer in the fourth end. Sweden’s final shot left no Swedish rocks in the house, and one Canadian rock hanging on. Jones took the deuce, putting Canada up 3-1.
Sweden, however, came back in the fifth end. The team had the chance to score four, but only scored two to tie the game at three.
Jones blanked the next two ends. She struck again in the eighth end, but almost gave up a steal. The Canadian rock was a fraction of an inch closer to the button than the Swedish rock, giving Team Canada a single point to take the 4-3 lead.
This set up the Canadians for a big ninth end. Kaitlyn Lawes, who had been having trouble earlier in the game, threw two rocks to take out Swedish stones while leaving the Canadian ones untouched.
With a backend full of Canadian stones, and just one Swedish rock near the button, Team Sweden was in tough to score. A poor throw resulted in Canada stealing two, giving the Canadian women a 6-3 lead going into the final end.
From there, it was a formality. In Jones’ first shot of the final end, she cleared the one Swedish rock in the house, sealing victory, and gold for Canada.
Jennifer Jones (@jjonescurl) watches her final shot. Amazing. #wearewinter #goldcanadagold pic.twitter.com/3C7tmYu2X1
— Mike Obrand (@HabsLaughs) February 20, 2014
