PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of – Canada will not win an Olympic medal in women’s curling for the first time.
Rachel Homan’s fifth loss Wednesday eliminated them from medal contention.
Since curling made its return to the Winter Olympics in 1998, a Canadian team had never finished out of the medals in men’s or women’s curling.
Homan’s team fell 6-5 to Britain’s Eve Muirhead in the morning draw.
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The Canadians needed to win it and their round-robin finale against Olympic Athletes from Russia to avoid elimination.
“I’m a little bit disappointed,” Homan said. “We wanted to try and qualify and make playoffs for Canada, but we gave it all we had. We never gave up. It’s the way it goes sometimes. It’s sport.”
The top four teams in the round robin advance to the semifinals.
South Korea’s EunJung Kim (7-1) and Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg (6-2) were already playoff-bound prior to the final draw. Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa was 5-3 ahead of Muirhead at 5-4.
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Canada’s Kevin Koe was 5-3 with one game remaining in the men’s round robin against Denmark.
Up 5-4 coming home without hammer, a tick on a guard by Canadian third Emma Miskew allowed Britain to draw in and lay four in a cluster at the top of the rings.
Homan’s attempted to clear removed just one. With two British stones crowding the button, the Canadian skip had a difficult draw to hold them to one and force an extra end.
Homan was light and the Canadians shook hands.
A stellar double raise runback from Muirhead in the ninth left Homan with a draw against two British stones for one.
“We had control of the game the whole way and didn’t quite put our rocks in the right spot in nine and didn’t put our rocks in the right spot in 10,” Homan said.
Muirhead blanked the seventh to keep hammer and scored two in the eighth to deadlock the game 8-8. Homan’s shooter rolled wide on a takeout, leaving Muirhead a draw for two.
After blanking the fifth, Homan missed a peel for another blank in the sixth. Her shooter stayed in the rings for a point and a 4-2 lead.
Muirhead trailed 3-2 after the fourth end when she hit against two Canadian stones for a single point.
Canada stole one in the third to lead 3-1 when Muirhead was heavy on a draw against two.
Homan had a draw for three in the second, but was light on her throw to settle for the deuce. Muirhead had hammer to start the game and hit for one in the first.