{"id":357598,"date":"2025-12-19T05:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/357598\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T05:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:11:11","slug":"australian-curlers-tahli-gill-and-dean-hewitt-miss-out-on-spot-at-2026-winter-olympic-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/357598\/","title":{"rendered":"Australian curlers Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt miss out on spot at 2026 Winter Olympic Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Heartbroken Aussie curlers Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt have missed out on a spot at the 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Despite rising to become the number one-ranked pair in the world last month and winning a historic bronze medal at the 2025 World Championships, the Aussies still needed to qualify for the Games after only being ranked eighth during the qualification period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Only the top seven, plus hosts Italy, were guaranteed an Olympic spot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">An uncharacteristically poor 15th-place finish at the 2024 world titles was the crucial moment that meant the Aussies needed to go through this do-or-die Olympic qualification tournament in Kelowna, Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Gill and Hewitt topped their qualification group with a 6-1 win-loss record after a thrilling 6-5 victory over China in their final round robin game.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Tahli Gill curls a stone\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/41def949f3849e6cf6cc7562996708c6\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Tahli Gill had a disappointing Olympic experience in China due to COVID. (Supplied: OWIA\/Chris Hocking)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">That put them into a clash with Pool A winners Czechia for a chance to win straight through to the Games.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/radio\/programs\/abc-sport-daily\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that&#8217;s making headlines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">However, the Aussies lost that one 6-5, putting them into a winner-takes-all decider against Pool A runners up South Korea, who beat China 7-3.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Delicately poised through the first four ends at 3-3, South Korea scored with three of their stones in the fifth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">Australia hit back with two of their own in the sixth, but were chasing from there on out, with Korea sealing the victory with an emphatic 3-stone eighth end to secure a 10-5 victory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">At the Beijing Games the Aussies placed 10th, finishing strongly to beat defending Olympic champions Canada.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">However, the pair had a chaotic time in Beijing, with Gill kept in isolation away from all competitors, including Hewitt, apart from when she was on the ice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph__iYReA\">She had contracted COVID-19 months earlier but daily testing wavered between positive and negative CT levels and the team was told to leave the Games, before a late reprieve allowed them to complete the final two competition rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Heartbroken Aussie curlers Tahli Gill and Dean Hewitt have missed out on a spot at the 2026 Winter&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,145979,145982,190438,85,145981,31080],"class_list":["post-357598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-curling","tag-dean-hewitt","tag-milan-cortina","tag-sports","tag-tahli-gill","tag-winter-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}