China's curling duo lose matches, but win hearts

Ever smiling, China's mixed doubles curling duo remained upbeat despite two straight defeats at the hands of the world's best, and chose to embrace their Olympic moment to promote the sport to the young.

Making their Olympic debut with two wins followed by two losses, Ling Zhi and Fan Suyuan appeared to be riding a roller coaster during the round-robin phase of the contest over the last three days, but managed to keep confidence and morale high, to savor every moment at the Games, both on and off ice.

With her habitual sunny smile, during post-match interviews in the mixed zone, Fan attributed the loss of their fourth round-robin match on Friday to defending Olympic champions Canada, to their lack of big league experience.

"Actually, the loss today was expected. For us, as a young team, a valuable contest like this is about learning lessons and gathering experience," Fan said after Team China's 6-8 loss to Canadian pair John Morris and Rachel Homan, at the National Aquatics Center.

Ling echoed his partner, saying that the finesse and composure of the reigning Canadians proved too much to match at their first Olympic appearance.

"Maybe we could equal them in strength, but when there were errors during some of the key shots, we kind of got caught up in the pressure. Then the tide turned against us," he said.

"Anyway, we'll approach the remaining games positively, and try to do our best with every shot we make."

As the newest Olympic discipline, curling was only added during the 2018 Games, the mixed doubles involve two players taking turns to slide five polished granite stones along a sheet of ice, with players scoring points by trying to place their stones closer to the center of the target, or house, at the conclusion of each end, as a round is known in curling terminology. In mixed doubles, a match lasts for eight ends instead of the usual 10 in traditional four-athlete team events.

Now ranked fifth with a 2-2 record in the 10-team round-robin phase, the pair still hopes to win enough of their remaining five matches with European and North American rivals, to finish in the top four and make it to the semifinals.

Competing in a sport sometimes known as "chess on ice" for its demand for focus and strategy, Ling admitted that the lack of international practice over the past two years due to pandemic-enforced disruptions to schedules has taken a toll on their technical and mental preparations for the Beijing Winter Games.

In their first loss to Sweden on Thursday, minor errors in three of Ling's early shots weakened their hand against experienced Swedish duo Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson, who secured three points in the final end to stage a dramatic comeback.

"The Chinese team was playing very well. They didn't make any of the easy mistakes when we were putting on the pressure. You can't give them too much. They make every shot, basically," said 2019 world mixed doubles champion Eriksson, of the challenge of facing the Chinese pair.

With their sporty performance drawing the attention of curling fans, Ling and Fan are proving popular on China's social media platforms for their good looks and fun exchanges in Dongbeihua, or Northeast Chinese dialect, during matches.

Ling's muscular frame and photos of his body building sessions on his personal Weibo account have earned him an increasing number of followers, who have nicknamed him the "most handsome ice sweeper" in the country.

"I am not paying much attention to that as I am totally focusing on my Games. But I think that any attention drawn to our sport, however it comes, is good attention. We need to promote curling as a fun sport," he said.