China defends wheelchair curling title at Beijing Paralympics

BEIJING - China successfully defended its wheelchair curling crown at the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Winter Games by beating Sweden 8-3 here on Saturday.

Skipped by Wang Haitao, China, the reigning Paralympic and world champion, trailed 2-1 after four ends, but scored four points in the fifth end as a turning point in the final at the National Aquatics Center.

Sweden, spearheaded by Viljo Pettersson-Dahl, only added one point on the scoreboard from the sixth end. After China scored three more points in the seventh end, the Swedish then conceded the defeat with friendly handshakes with the host players.

On the defeat to Sweden during the round robin session, skip Wang explained that "losing that game is not unacceptable, because it exposed our own shortcomings. In the final, we made our adjustment based on that."

Wang was also a member of the winning team that awarded China its first ever Paralympic gold at PyeongChang 2018. However, he said this time the gold is "a lot heavier" and more meaningful.

"Four years ago, I don't think we had any pressure to win the championship. But now we are playing on home ice and we want to win this precious gold medal in particular," Wang added.

China has become the first curling team other than Canada to be crowned at the Paralympic Games in PyeongChang 2018, and won back-to-back world championships in 2019 and 2021.

"I feel very, very happy," said women's world champion Yue Qingshuang, coach of the Chinese team since 2017. "I had a satisfying career as an athlete, and leading the team to the gold medal at two Winter Paralympic Games proves my capability as a coach."

Canada who lost to China in semifinals, beat Slovakia to take the bronze medal on Friday evening.