Great Britain Beats Japan to Win Women's Curling Gold Medal at 2022 Olympics

Great Britain defeated Japan 10-3 on Sunday (Saturday ET) to win gold in women's curling at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.

Great Britain led 2-0 after one end and held on to a 4-2 advantage after six before pouring it on in the seventh with four more points thanks to a phenomenal throw from skip Eve Muirhead:

That gave the eventual gold medalists an 8-2 lead, and they cruised from there to a victory that finished after the ninth end.

Muirhead, Hailey Duff (first), Jennifer Dodds (second), Vicky Wright (third) and Mili Smith (alternate) represented Great Britain on the international stage.

For Japan, skip Satsuki Fujisawa, first Yurika Yoshida, second Yumi Suzuki, third Chinami Yoshida and alternate Kotomi Ishizaki ended up earning the country's first-ever Olympic curling medal.

Great Britain and Japan both needed to come up on the right end of a tiebreaker just to get to the semifinals.

Their 5-4 records were good enough for third place and a three-team tie with Canada, but only four out of the 10 Olympic teams make the field.

The first tiebreaker is head-to-head, but that didn't settle anything with all three countries 1-1. The tiebreaker was decided as follows, per Jimmy Golen of the Associated Press:

"The final session left Japan, Britain and Canada tied at 5-4 and only two spots available. Because they all went 1-1 in head-to-head, the tiebreaker — used for the first time in the Olympics — was their average distance in the draw shot challenge, a pregame, two-throw draw to the button on an empty sheet."

"The three tied teams were the worst in the competition, but all that mattered was who was last. And with that, Canada was out of the women's field."

With that, Great Britain and Japan advanced and upset Sweden and Switzerland, respectively, to move on.

Both snuck by in nail-biters: Japan won 8-6, but Great Britain needed an extra end to win a 12-11 classic. Sweden scored three in the 10th end to tie it up at 11.

That set up the final, which marks Great Britain's third women's curling gold medal (2002, gold; 2014, bronze).