Canada starts men's Olympic curling competition with extra-end win

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy — Curling powerhouse Canada began its bid to reclaim the men's title at the Winter Olympics by needing an extra end to beat Germany 7-6 on Wednesday.

Canada skip Brad Jacobs returned to the Olympic stage for the first time since leading the team to men's gold in Sochi in 2014 and was faced with a pressure shot to clinch victory on the opening night of round-robin play.

Jacobs made it perfectly, nudging a German stone out of the house and leaving his own in the button for the decisive point.

''It's been a long time for me — I'm cherishing every moment of this,'' Jacobs said. ''This is spectacular.''

Germany made a two-point play off the final shot of the 10th end to tie the score at 6-6 and take the match to an extra end.

It was the final match left on the ice, with Italy having wrapped up a 7-6 win over defending champion Sweden to a backdrop of fervent home support inside the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.

In other matches, Britain beat China 9-4 with an end to spare and the United States beat Czechia 8-7.

The world has caught up with Canadian curling over the past decade, meaning the men's team's last Olympic medal was under Jacobs 12 years ago.

Since then, the U.S. and Sweden have won men's gold — with Canada winning just one bronze in that time.

''People need to understand how difficult international curling is these days,'' said Marc Kennedy, Jacobs' teammate. ''These teams are good, these players have been around a long time. A lot of them come to Canada, work on their game, and they are as good or better than most of our Canadian teams.

''That expectation of winning a medal every time, it's gone. It's a tough battle out there.''

The women's competition starts on Thursday.

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