Swedish siblings edge out US for historic curling mixed doubles gold

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Sweden's Rasmus Wranaa and Isabella Wranaa celebrate winning gold after the Curling Mixed Doubles Gold Medal Game against USA's Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, as part of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Andrew Milligan/PA Wire/dpa

Swedish siblings Rasmus and Isabella Wranå clinched Olympic gold in the curling mixed doubles on Tuesday after a gripping final with the United States.

They are believed to be the first ever brother-sister duo to take Games gold as a team. Just an hour later, Domen and Nika Prevc matched the feat in ski jumping's mixed team event.

US duo Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin had two winning stones on end 7 to take the lead for the first time since the opening end.

But the Swedes won the deciding end by two themselves to prevail 6-5 thanks to Isabella's commanding last shot.

"It's a perfect shot for me to have, like a takeout. But of course, you're nervous. It's the last shot. If you make it, it's an Olympic gold, but we kept calm," she said.

"We talked about how we're going to throw it and I knew that I had a really strong sweeper, so I felt good."

Rasmus won men's team gold with Sweden at the last Games and will hope to be in the final again on February 21, with the men's event beginning on Wednesday. His sister in contrast was an Olympic debutant.

The pair were the first Swedish brother and sister to compete on the same Olympic team and lost three games in a row in round-robin play.

Rasmus said: "We told ourselves that it's never over until it's over. If we win all games from here, then we win the Olympics. That's basically what we said."

Same-sex siblings have won Olympic gold together before, notably Serena and Venus Williams in doubles tennis. Meanwhile, Japanese brother and sister Hifumi and Uta Abe won individual judo golds on the same day in Tokyo in 2021.

But the Swedish triumph of brother and sister winning as a team appears to be an Olympic first.

Two pairs of married couples from Switzerland and Canada were knocked out earlier in the curling competition.

The US had previously never won a mixed doubles medal but had to settle for silver.

Dropkin said: "It's bittersweet. But Cory said earlier that, if we were to start this year off and tell each other we were going to be Olympic silver medallists, we'd be ecstatic."

Earlier, Italy's Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner continued the host nations' strong Winter Olympics by taking bronze.

The Italians, who had taken gold at the last Games in Beijing and are also world champions, beat British pair Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat 5-3.

Constantini particularly impressed with a 92% game shot success rate.

It was the seventh bronze of the Milan/Cortina Games for Italy, who have also scooped two golds and two silver.

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Sweden's Rasmus Wranaa and Isabella Wranaa celebrate with their gold medals after winning the Curling Mixed Doubles Gold Medal Game against USA's Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, as part of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Andrew Milligan/PA Wire/dpa
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(R-L) Italy's bronze medallists Amos Mosaner and Stefania Constantini, take a selfie with Sweden's winners Rasmus Wranaa and Isabella Wranaa and USA's silver medallists Cory Thiesse and Korey Dropkin after the Curling Mixed Doubles Gold Medal Game at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. Andrew Milligan/PA Wire/dpa

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