USA beats Korea 9-2 in Milan Cortina Paralympic wheelchair curling mixed team

USA v Korea in Wheelchair Curling at the Milan Cortina Paralympics. Photo: TownLift // Michele Roepke

CORTINA, Italy — In the wheelchair curling tournament at the Milan Cortina Paralympics, the United States mixed team beat Korea 9-2 in the ninth session of the round robin portion of the competition.

The round also saw Norway beating Latvia 6-5, Sweden beating Slovakia 5-4, and China beating Great Britain 9-4.

The USA Team was down one after Korea posted the initial point in the first end. After that, the Americans dominated the match. Korea scored one more point but then the USA was back in the zone, putting up points. 

Thus far in this Paralympic tournament, the Americans had lost to China, Great Britain, Latvia, and Slovakia; however, they’ve gotten the “W” against Sweden and the home team of Italy when they won 10 -1.

The roster consists of Matt Thums, Sean O’Neil, Dan Rose, and Oyuna Uranchimeg.

“The Italians have certainly showed up to cheer at and to just generally host these Games, and they’re the nicest people you could ever meet,” Thums said to reporters afterwards. O’Neil added, “Yes, each pair of us has our own secret handshake you saw out there. It’s a nice way to support everyone and keep us all pumped up.”

Mixed teams are required to have at least one man and woman. The U.S.’s one woman, Uranchimeg, was born in Mongolia and told TownLift that she has a growing following of fans from there and strong support from the Mongolian Olympic/Paralympic committee.

Rose, who was injured in military duty, has his whole family and then some along for the ride in Milan Cortina, many traveling from Denver. 

Those spectators were in for a treat when they watched a somewhat rare occurrence on the sheet where Latvia was taking on Norway. In the seventh end, the score was 4-4 when a stone was so close after coming to a stop, the curling official walked out onto the ice and used her long, metal measuring tool to determine the precise winner of that point. The moment provided double excitement as A) an official check, and B) an official check at a point in the game where the score was tied. Squeals of delight rang through the stadium when Latvia was acknowledged as the winner of the call getting the tiebreak.

Norway beating Latvia after that provided an opportunity for some of the local Italian school children, who get to attend more empty-seated, non-medal events like this one, on field trips on a Wednesday at 10 a.m. with their teachers, to get autographs from the Paralympians. Below is a that scene from the woman on Team Norway. 

Later that night, Team Korea played China in the gold medal match of the different discipline of mixed doubles in the event’s Paralympic debut. Those are the two nations who most recently hosted the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

Most of the rented Team Houses of all the countries in Cortina are located within the vicinity of the ski town itself. The Korea House, however, is located about eight miles out of town within the Dolomite Mountain range.

Their game was tied at 7-all, but ultimately Korea took the silver medal back to their mountain house and China got the gold.

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