Becca Hamilton competes against Team ROC during the women's round robin during the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on Feb. 10, 2022 in Beijing.
BEIJING — The road to reversing history is paved with small milestones that may or may not be predictive of what’s to come but show things are moving in the right direction.
Take the U.S. women’s curling team, 0-6 in program history when it comes to medals at the Olympic Winter Games, but now 2-0 at these Games after opening with wins over the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and Denmark Thursday at Beijing’s Ice Cube. It’s the first time a U.S. women’s curling team is 2-0 at the Games since 2002, which happens to be the only time in history a U.S. women’s team played for medal, losing the bronze-medal game that year against Canada.
Skip Tabitha Peterson isn’t looking ahead to possible medals yet, but she said 2-0 felt “amazing.”
“We’re excited, we can’t complain after Day 1,” Peterson said following the evening 7-5 win over Denmark. “We’re really in a good spot, but lots of games ahead, so we’ve got to kind of keep our heads down and keep grinding.”
The day began with a morning tilt with the ROC, a much-anticipated match for the players as they waited to get on the ice. The U.S. team of Peterson, Nina Roth, Becca Hamilton and Tara Peterson arrived in Beijing Feb. 4, and with the mixed doubles tournament occupying the ice until the 8th, they didn’t get any practice time until the day before the first draw. But there didn't appear to be any rust to shake off as Team USA put up two points in the opening end and raced out to a 6-1 lead.
“I feel like we kind of came out firing,” Peterson said afterward. “We put some pressure on them early, and we did get a few misses out of them, and we capitalized on all their misses. Once we got up in the scoreboard, we just tried to lob our rocks into the rings.”
A Peterson takeout in the 7th end scored three to make it 9-3 and that was handshakes from the ROC.
“It felt really good,” Peterson continued. “After our practice last night, we kind of came together and talked about what we were seeing and how we were feeling. It just felt really good today. Everyone threw really well, I knew exactly where they were throwing, and it makes it easier for me to read the line. A lot of good things were happening. Hopefully we can keep it up. It’s only Game 1.”
Want to follow Team USA athletes during the Olympic Games Beijing 2022? Visit TeamUSA.org/Beijing-2022-Olympic-Games to view the competition schedule, medal table and results.
