Skip Anette Norberg and Sweden roll their rocks right into gold-medal game, again

Swedish women curlers go for gold again

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Anette Norberg came with her signature stern game face and steady hand. She will curl for gold again at the Vancouver Games — and against the host country.

Norberg and defending gold medalist Sweden easily handled the reigning world champion Chinese 9-4 Thursday in a shortened nine-end victory in the Olympic semifinals, advancing to Friday’s championship game against top-seeded Canada.

The Canadians advanced with a 6-5 victory over Switzerland that was in doubt until the very end. Needing two points to tie, the Swiss had one stone near the center of the scoring area with a Canadian stone nearby. Switzerland’s Mirjam Ott managed to knock the Canadian rock out with the last shot, but her own stone slid too far away for her team to score the two points it needed.