New Zealand Curling

A polished performance ensured Nicole Muskatewitz (Germany) and Michael Brunner (Switzerland) walked away with the Gold medal in the Mixed Doubles at the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games.

They were too strong for Eunbi Kim (Korea) and Martin Sesaker (Norway), winning 13-2 after seven ends.

Each clip from the Innsbruck2012 YouTube channel opens in a new window.

Mixed Doubles	Finals Gold & Bronze medal games	Round 2, Draw 2 inc NZL/CAN v CZE/RUS
Click on Read More link for Team Mixed Fours clips.
Round 2, Draw 1 inc SWE/NZL v RUS/USA	Round 1, Draw 4 inc NZL/SUI v USA/GBR	Round 1, Draw 3 inc ITA/NZL v GBR/CZE
Round 1, Draw 2 inc SWE/NZL v GBR/NOR	Round 1, Draw 1 inc NZL/SUI v JPN/GBR	Cultural Programme Intro to ice stock sport

Innsbruck, Austria – New Zealand's run in the curling competition at Innsbruck ended after the remaining two Kiwis were eliminated in the second knockout round of the Mixed Doubles.

Luke Steele and his Swedish partner Johanna Heldrin were well beaten 10-3 in the first draw of the day. Later in the day, Kelsi Heath and her Canadian teammate Thomas Scoffin lost a thriller on the last shot of the game.

At the end of the first knockout round of the Mixed Doubles Curling Competition, all 16 nations involved in the curling event at the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games have at least one athlete who has made it through to the next round on Saturday.

Of the 4 Kiwis in action, 2 secured a win and so progressed to the second round – Kelsi Heath and her Canadian partner Thomas Scoffin, and Luke Steele with his Swedish teammate Johanna Heldin.

Innsbruck, Austria – Switzerland won the gold medal in the Mixed Fours Team Curling Competition at the 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games. They beat Italy 6-4, so the Italians took the silver medal. Canada won the bronze in beating Sweden 6-4.

The medal games also determined the final make-up of the Mixed Doubles competition, where one male and one female player from different countries will play a knockout competition. New Zealand's four curlers will partner players from Canada, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.

New Zealand's Mixed Fours campaign ended after their last pool match when they were beaten by Korea 9-4. A win to the Kiwis would have seen them join Norway and China in tiebreakers for the final qualifying spot from their group.

The squad of Luke Steele, Eleanor Adviento, David Weyer and Kelsi Heath will next play in the Mixed Doubles competition later in the week.

Innsbruck, Austria – The USA were the first team to qualify for the knock-out stages of the Mixed Team Curling Competition at the first Winter Youth Olympic Games, after continuing their undefeated run with an 11-1 win over the Czech Republic in the Blue Group.

New Zealand were unable to repeat their winning form of yesterday, losing 6-7 to Norway on the last stone in their first game of the day.

Eleanor Adviento's (NZL) eyes grew as wide as the Curling stone she was sweeping glided toward a crowded house in the eighth end against China at the Innsbruck 2012 Winter Youth Olympic Games on Sunday.

The New Zealanders needed to score two points in that final end of their Mixed Curling match against the highly-rated Chinese and a picture-perfect shot secured their 7-6 triumph.

Innsbruck, Austria – Japan, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and USA continued their impressive form in the first sessions of day 2 of the Mixed Team Curling Competition at the Winter Youth Olympic Games in Austria.

New Zealand also picked up its first win during the early session.

Innsbruck, Austria – The first Winter Youth Olympic Games Mixed Team Curling competition began today, with all 16 teams getting their first taste of competitive action on in the ice in the Innsbruck Exhibition Centre.

The Czech Republic, Switzerland and USA are the only teams to remain unbeaten in the Blue Group, while Austria, Japan, Russia and Sweden all won their opening games in the Red Group. The originally scheduled first round for the Red Group was deferred to the end of pool play after an overnight electrical problem affected the ice plant.

Yesterday was just absolutely amazing, we arrived at the Youth Olympic Village (YOV) here in Innsbruck! Our bus (shared with the Aussie team) was greeted by the Innsbruck 2012 volunteers, dressed in their epic uniform.

	Kelsi and I with official Innsbruck 2012 mascot Yogger

As I hauled my luggage to the YOV scan and check-in, I had a crack at my Austrian-German speaking ability with the locals. I believe that most of my conversations went like:

  Me: Guten arbend! Wie gehts?
  Them: Nice!

I never really got an answer from anybody!

It was nice seeing the New Zealand apartment for the first time. I definitely felt at home seeing our flags hanging from the balconies of the two floors assigned to the New Zealand team.

I am sharing my apartment with team mate Kelsi Heath, and also Libby-Jean Hay (ice hockey) and Piera Hudson (alpine skiing).

Innsbruck, Austria – New Zealand will join 15 other top level junior curling teams from around the world at the Innsbruck Exhibition Centre, Austria, later this week to compete in the inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games taking place from 13 to 22 January.

The NZ side of Luke Steele (17), Eleanor Adviento (16), David Weyer (17) and Kelsi Heath (16) will compete against teams from Austria, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

School exams are over, which means summer holidays are (finally) here! My friends back home are hoping to start to check off their list of "things-to-do-this-summer-while-we're-still-young", but too bad the infamous Auckland weather is keeping kids at home. Meanwhile, my plans for the summer include: curling, sleeping, curling, stretching, curling, eating and... CURLING!

L-R: Luke Steele, Eleanor Adviento, David Weyer, Kelsi Heath (Photo courtesy of Liz Matthews)

I came down to Central Otago with Kelsi Heath the team's lead, and Liz Matthews our team manager on the 10th of December, giving myself one last month to train with the team before we head to Austria.

On our arrival at Dunedin Airport, we were greeted by the lovely sun and cool sea breeze – perfect timing for the perfect getaway!

It has been a while since the New Zealand Youth Olympic Curling Team was selected in March, yet it did not seem that long ago that I was sitting upstairs with my fellow athletes, waiting in anticipation as the selectors decided the team. For four young curlers, everything was about to dramatically change; four of us were about to become Olympians! (How great would that be on a CV?)

	L-R: Luke Steele, Eleanor Adviento, David Weyer, Kelsi Heath (Photo courtesy of Liz Matthews)

Luke Steele, Eleanor Adviento, David Weyer and Kelsi Heath were the names.

My name is Eleanor Adviento, and I am the vice-skip of the New Zealand Winter Youth Olympic Curling Team. Here in this space you will find my blogs about the NZ YOG Team's highly interesting journey towards the Inaugural Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. As my first blog entry, I think it would be appropriate to introduce the pack of curling hooligans who I have been throwing rocks at houses with for the past 9 months...