Curling gold again for Sweden

CALGARY — The world men’s curling championship resumed Sunday, a day after officials announced four positive COVID-19 tests within the Calgary bubble.

One of the players who tested positive was a member of a playoff team — United States third Chris Plys — and that team was on the ice for a qualification game against Switzerland Sunday afternoon.

Switzerland beat the United States 7-6 to move on to the semifinal round.

Plys tested positive on Friday, then tested negative on Saturday. He was originally ruled out for Sunday’s game but he has already been vaccinated, twice, so a decision was made by the World Curling Federation, in consultation with Alberta Health, to allow him to play.

“It was very complicated,” United States skip John Shuster said.

“It looked like we were being selfish and trying to get a player on our team, who had tested positive and then tested negative, onto the ice. The fact of the matter is everybody who tested positive on Friday, tested negative on Saturday. So, were any of them really positive? Did the bubble actually break?”

Postmedia News has confirmed that all four people in the bubble who tested positive on Friday, tested negative on Saturday.

Switzerland went on to lose 11-3 to defending champion Sweden (Niklas Edin) in one semifinal, while the Russian Curling Federation (Sergey Glukhov) lost 5-3 to Scotland (Bruce Mouat), the team that eliminated Canada’s Brendan Bottcher on Friday night.

Sweden wound up winning a third straight world men’s championship gold medal with a 10-5 victory over Scotland at the Markin Macphail Arena at Canada Olympic Park. It is a record fifth world title for Edin, a 35-year-old who has cemented his status as one of the greatest skips of all time on the planet.