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CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — A remarkable winning streak has come to an end at the Winter Olympics.
Italy’s mixed doubles curling duo of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner lost to Canada 7-2 on Thursday in their second round-robin match of the Games, snapping a stretch of 23 consecutive victories. They weren’t just any victories — they all came in the Olympics or world championships.
Constantini, 26, and Mosaner, 30, teamed for the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, then took time off from playing together before pairing again for the 2025 world championships. In both tournaments, they went 9-0 in round-robin play and 2-0 in the knockout rounds to win gold. They then won their opening Olympic match Wednesday night to push the streak to 23.
The Canadian team of Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman, though, was too strong Thursday, thanks mostly to a first-end tidal wave. They opened with a five-ender on an impressive final-shot runback — hitting a guard stone into an opponent’s stone to clear it — from Peterman.
With the hammer in the second end, Italy managed just one point. Holding the hammer again two ends later, Italy opted to use its power play — a once-a-match option each team has to set the initial stones in a more favorable position — but failed to capitalize, taking just a single point again.
Up five in the seventh end, Peterman continued her strong play with a double takeout just before Italy’s hammer attempt. Constantini threw a little too hard, clearing the last Canadian stone and her own for a blank end. With one end to play and the hammer headed to Canada (unlike traditional curling, when a blank results in the hammer staying with the same team, in mixed curling, a blank end results in the hammer switching teams), the Italians then conceded.
“It’s just a tough event, so every game’s important,” Gallant said. “I think we knew coming into that game, you’re playing against the reigning world champs, reigning Olympic champs, there’s only one kind of thing you have to do is play really well.”
The game was the first of the four evening sessions to end. As play continued on the other sheets, the Italian team walked off the ice to a big ovation from the home crowd, waving their brooms to the fans.
There’s still plenty of time for Constantini and Mosaner to rebound in this tournament, with seven round-robin games remaining. They are 1-1, good for sixth. The top four teams make the knockout round, and three of them are currently unbeaten, topped by 3-0 Canada and Great Britain.
“The tournament, we have seven more games to play,” Mosaner said. “We try to give it 100 percent every game, and we see what we can (do).”
Regardless of their mixed doubles fate, there will be more Constantini and Mosaner in Cortina. Constantini skips the Italian women’s team, and Mosaner is the third on the men’s team.