Women’s Curling Team Crushes Sweden 8-3...Semifinal Hopes Brighten

Big win in eighth round-robin game at Winter Olympics

Tied for third with United States at 5-3 in preliminaries

Semifinal berth secured with win over Canada on the 19th

The Korean women's curling team boosted its chances of reaching the semifinals at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics by defeating Sweden.

World No. 3 Korea, consisting of skip Kim Eunji, third Kim Minji, second Kim Suji, lead Seol Yeeun, and fifth Seol Yeeji, cruised to an 8-3 victory in just seven ends over world No. 4 Sweden in the eighth round-robin match held on the 18th (local time) at the Cortina Olympic Curling Stadium in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. With this result, Korea improved to 5 wins and 3 losses, placing it in a tie for third with the United States behind Sweden (6 wins, 2 losses) and Switzerland (5 wins, 2 losses).

The Korean women's curling team is celebrating after defeating Sweden 8-3 in the eighth round-robin match at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Cortina (Italy) = Yonhap News Agency

The national team will compete for a semifinal berth, which is awarded to the top four teams, in its final preliminary match against fifth-place Canada (4 wins, 3 losses) at 10:05 p.m. on the 19th (Korea Standard Time) at the same venue. If Korea defeats Canada, it will advance to the semifinals on its own. If it loses, it will have to wait for the results of other matches. If the two teams finish tied for fourth, the team that won their head-to-head match in the preliminaries will advance to the semifinals. If three or more teams are tied, the standings will be determined based on the head-to-head records among those teams.

Sweden, which had already secured a spot in the final four, was plagued by repeated mistakes on the day. Starting with the hammer in the first end, Korea used a precise shot by Kim Minji to group three stones in the house, and then Kim Eunji knocked out Sweden's second shot stone with the final stone to score a big three points. Riding that momentum, Korea added one more point in the second end, even without the hammer.

With the score stretched to 4-0, Sweden began to falter. In the third end, Hasselborg attempted a double takeout with the seventh stone to remove Korea's two stones sitting on the button, but mis-aimed and failed to capitalize on the opportunity. Korea did not let this chance slip away, scoring two points to extend the lead to 6-0. Facing a dispirited Swedish side, Korea added another two points in the fourth end to make it 8-0, effectively putting the game out of reach.