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Canada’s Rachel Homan used a familiar playbook for her opening victory at the Winter Olympics on Thursday.
Clinical shotmaking when required. Keep the pressure on the opponent. Set the early tone.
The world’s top-ranked women’s curling team did just that in a 10-4 victory over Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.
“I think we made a pile of shots early, and it felt pretty comfortable,” Homan said.
Both teams took the first few ends to adjust to the ice conditions in their opening round-robin game. The rinks exchanged deuces early before the Canadian side built up a big fifth end without hammer.
WATCH | Canada dispatches Denmark in women’s curling opener:
Canada’s Rachel Homan beats Denmark in women’s Olympic curling opener
Rachel Homan and her Ottawa-based rink defeat Denmark’s Madeleine Dupont 10-4 in the opening session at Milano Cortina 2026.
Danish misses
Some Danish misses allowed Canada to surround the button under cover and force Dupont to try two precise shots to limit the damage. Throwing against five counters, Dupont could only remove one Canadian rock with her last stone.
The steal of four points turned the game and Canada tacked on three more in the seventh to end it.
“We all know they’re so good,” Dupont said. “So we needed to bring our very best, which I thought we did for an hour. Then we screwed it up for a bit and then we did really well again.
“But it was not enough against these guys.”
Homan, Tracy Fleury, Emma Miskew and Sarah Wilkes are expected to be among the medal contenders in the 10-team field.
“In the first game, you don’t really know how fast the ice is going to be,” said Canadian coach Viktor Kjell. “Once we got that figured out and the rocks figured out, I thought we played really well.
“We had a lot of pressure on them when we needed.”
Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg, Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni and Stefania Constantini of host Italy are skipping some of the other top teams in the competition.
Sweden opened with an 8-4 victory over Japan’s Sayaka Yoshimura and Italy dropped a 7-4 decision to Switzerland. American Tabitha Peterson doubled South Korea’s Eunji Gim 8-4 in the other early game.
Canada is scheduled to return to action Friday afternoon against the United States.
“A great start and lots to build on from here,” Kjell said.
It was the first Olympic meeting between Homan and Dupont since the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics. Miskew was Homan’s vice at those Games and a different front end was in the lineup.
Denmark beat Canada 9-8 on an extra-end steal to leave Homan at 0-3. Earlier in that game, Homan memorably pulled a burned rock rather than leaving it in play.
Homan went on to miss the playoffs and fell short again four years later when she returned to the Games in Beijing. She teamed with John Morris in mixed doubles but missed the cutline.
Now her Ottawa-based foursome is back after one of the more dominant quadrennials the sport has seen.
“I don’t think they make many 100 per cent misses,” Dupont said. “Even their bad rocks, or their kind-of misses, they still get something out of it. And that means a lot.”
The Calgary-based men’s team skipped by Brad Jacobs was idle Thursday. The Canadian men opened with a 7-6 extra-end victory over Germany on Wednesday night.
Jacobs and teammates Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert will return to action Friday with a two-game day. They’ll take on American Daniel Casper in the morning and defending champion Niklas Edin of Sweden in the evening.
The Canadian duo of Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman missed the playoffs in mixed doubles earlier in the Games.
