US, Canada women advance to Olympics curling semis

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy -- Rachel Homan's Canada team beat South Korea 10-7 on Thursday to book a spot in the semi-finals of the women's curling competition at the Winter Olympics, where they will be joined by the United States.-

Both teams needed to win to lock in a place in the final four, and Homan delivered a fine performance to seal an Olympic semi-finals spot for the first time in her career.

Canada, two-time world champions, were pre-tournament favorites to win gold, but Homan's record at the Olympics has been poor. She participated in the past two Games, finishing sixth as skip of the women's team in 2018 and then once again ending up outside the qualification spots for the semi-finals while competing in the mixed doubles in 2022.

Canada had a poor start to its round-robin campaign with just one win after the opening four games.

"We've been in a single elimination tournament. We started off a little bit slow," Homan said.

"We knew our game. We knew our training. We had belief in each other and just tried to stick with the process. ... It's hard playing a single elimination game the entire time, but that's what the Olympics is. It's a tough field.

"Everyone's gunning for you, and you have to bring your best every single time or it's going to be a loss."

Tabitha Peterson and her United States teammates are hoping to become the first U.S. women's team to win an Olympic medal. They claimed a 7-6 win over Switzerland, which already had sealed a spot in the semi-finals.

The game went into an extra end and Switzerland set up two stones in the house, but Peterson made a difficult draw with her last shot to snatch the win.

Asked about the final shot, the team's second Tara Peterson said: "We just told her the speed. ... You give Tab a draw, she's going to make it, so we were very happy to have that opportunity."

The United States will meet Switzerland once again in the semi-finals on Friday, while round-robin leader Sweden takes on fourth-place Canada.

Great Britain, the defending Olympic champion, beat host Italy 7-4 to finish sixth.

--Reuters, Special to Field Level Media