Winter Olympics today's highlights: Curling competition starts tonight The Chinese combination has encountered a fierce opponent

The Beijing Winter Olympics will open on February 4, and before the opening, some sports will take the lead in competition, of which curling is the first to start the schedule. At 20:05 on February 2, the first round of the curling mixed doubles round robin will start at the same time as the "Ice Cube", and the Chinese mixed doubles combination Fan Suyuan / Ling Zhi will become the first Chinese player to appear at the Beijing Winter Olympic Games.

The Ice Cube was the first venue for the Beijing Winter Olympics. Photo by Deng Wei

The curling competition at the Beijing Winter Olympics has a long schedule, not only the first opening, but also the last match day. Among the three sub-events of curling at the Winter Olympics, the highest ranking of the Chinese team in the world is the mixed doubles (sixth). Previously, in the six-week domestic selection competition, Fan Suyuan, born in 1996, and Ling Zhi, born in 1994, stood out from 5 pairs of players and qualified for the Beijing Winter Olympics with their personal performance and winning rate data. The two actually began to form from the third week of the audition, and they did not run together for a long time.

Fan Suyuan/Ling Zhi's first opponent in the Beijing Winter Olympic curling mixed doubles round robin was Switzerland's Jenny Perret/Martin Rios. The Swiss team is strong in mixed doubles events, with a high winning percentage, and currently ranks second in the world, winning seven of the 13 World Championships in which it has participated. It is worth mentioning. The Perey/Rios pair is a veritable "stronghouse" and they won the silver medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

It is worth mentioning that the Swiss duo had a "story" with the Chinese team 4 years ago. At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, the curling mixed doubles event entered the Olympic Games for the first time, when the Wang Rui/Badexin combination sent by the Chinese team was very vocal, and the two aimed to win the cards. Wang Rui / Bade Xin encountered the Swiss combination in the first round, there was a controversial penalty in the game, and finally the referee made a penalty that was more favorable to the Swiss team, which was a key penalty that affected the win of the game, and the Chinese team finally lost.

At the Beijing Winter Olympics, the young Fan Suyuan/Ling Zhi's first opponent was Pere/Rios, hoping that the pair of "newborn calves" would not be afraid of strong hands and make a wonderful debut.