Sweden Beats Great Britain to Win Men's Curling Gold Medal at 2022 Olympics

Sweden scored in the first extra end to capture the gold medal in men's curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics with a 5-4 victory over Great Britain on Saturday at the Beijing National Aquatics Center.

Great Britain, led by skip Bruce Mouat, forced curling's version of overtime with a point in the 10th end, but Sweden and skip Niklas Edin used hammer position in the extra end to build an in-house advantage the Brits couldn't clear.

It's the first Olympic gold in curling for the Swedes in the men's event. The country has finished atop the podium three times in the women's tournament, most recently in 2018.

Sweden and Great Britain delivered a fantastic final with no shortage of high-end shot-making, which led to a match that featured only a single end where a team scored more than one point—Sweden's two in the second end.

For the most part, it was a battle of well-played shot followed by well-played shot, which is reflected in the stats. The Brits posted a 90 percent shot efficiency in the final, a great number, but the Swedes still edged them out thanks to 94 percent efficiency.

Christoffer Sundgren was nearly flawless as the lead for Sweden, shooting 99 percent on his 22 shots in the match. Rasmus Wrana (95 percent) and Oskar Eriksson (93 percent) were also terrific, and even Edin, who shot 87 percent, posted an efficiency higher than his tournament average.

Hammy McMillan (95 percent) and Grant Hardie (94 percent) led the way for Great Britain in a match with minimal end-changing mistakes.

"God, it's nice. It's obviously been an incredibly long journey with pretty disappointing defeats," Edin told reporters. "It's been many nice years and a lot of success, and to get this Olympic gold medal now is an extra tick."

Mouat, who led all skips in efficiency for the tournament, lamented the Brits' sluggish start to the final.

"They have won nearly every medal possible in the curling world, so they're a very impressive team," he said. "We just had to have a better start and we could have probably won that game. That's going to sting for a while."

All told, it was a match fitting of an Olympic final, and either side would have been a deserving winner of the gold medal.

But, in the end, that ultimate prize belongs to Sweden.