Canadians, Swiss top the curling world

Between them, the Canadian men and women have eight of the last 10 world curling champions. While the Canadian women beat surprise finalist Denmark 7-5, the men were stunned in the gold medal game 9-3 by Switzerland, a team the Canadians had beaten earlier 8-3.

"I don't know what happened," said Canadian skip, or captain, Mike Harris, who is a professional golfer.

"I wouldn't have minded losing if we had played well, but we just didn't show up."

The Winter Games must bring out the best in the Swiss, who haven't won the world championship since 1992, when they also won an Olympic demonstration tournament.

"I have lost four Swiss finals before, sometimes by one inch," Swiss skip Patrick Huerlimann said. "That we can win such an important final as this is just an unbelievable feeling. Our strategy was to put pressure on them from the first end because you can beat them only if you are aggressive."

The Americans, who haven't finished higher than third in a world championship since 1993, fell well behind early for the second match in a row and lost 9-4 to Norway in the men's bronze-medal match.

The bronze would have been good enough for the United States, but only one gold didn't seem to satisfy the Canadians.

"Sometimes people say, 'Well, you've won Canada so it should be easy when you play international teams,'" said Joan McCusker, one of Canada's players. "But that is not true. Those teams that play in internal competitions play regularly, have experience, travel widely and are very good teams."

The Swiss, who sent a much more experienced team to Nagano than the Canadians, opened up a 9-1 lead by scoring seven points in the fourth, fifth and sixth ends. The Canadians conceded after the eighth end, partly because Switzerland owned the all-important hammer - the final shot - in the 10th and often decisive end.

The Canadian women, aided by a point in the eighth end that was so close a measurement was required, denied Denmark its first gold medal in any Winter Olympics.

Still, the Danes came away with their first medal of any kind outside of the Summer Olympics.

Denmark has never been a factor before in the Winter Olympics because it lacks the sports facilities of Scandinavian rivals Norway and Sweden. Even its curling team often must take a ferry to Sweden to train.

Canada, winner of the past two world championships, got off to a 3-0 start in the first end and led 6-2 after the sixth.

"The team is totally ecstatic," Canada skip Sandra Schmirler said. "We played a strong game throughout and got off to a great start ... (but) they really put the pressure on us and made us make good shots."

Sweden beat Britain 10-6 for the women's bronze medal.

Just as they did in falling behind Canada 4-0 in a 7-1 semifinal loss, the Americans trailed from the start against Norway, which led 6-0 after five.

Most matches last 10 ends, or innings, but the Americans conceded after nine.

"In the last two games we did not play well at all," U.S. skip Tim Somerville said. "We had too many ups and downs, and that's why we ended up in fourth place."

Norway captain Eigil Ramsfjell said the bronze medal helped ease the frustration of the close loss to Switzerland.

"I am happy about the medal but also a little bit sentimental about finishing," said Ramsfjell, a three-time individual world champion.

The United States did well just to get into medal competition. They had to win three consecutive matches, two in tiebreakers, just to reach the semifinals.

02-16-98