Great Britain missed out on a bronze medal in the mixed doubles curling at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics after a crushing 9-3 defeat to Sweden.
Jennifer Dodds and Bruce Mouat dropped down to the third-place playoff after a narrow loss to Norway in the semi-finals and were once again dispatched by the ruthless Scandinavians on Tuesday morning.
GB found themselves 1-0 up after the first end, but Sweden's Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson soon found their groove to storm into a 7-1 lead after three ends.
Dodds and Mouat could not make up the deficit and had to wait until the sixth and final end to post another two, by which point it was too little too late to launch a dramatic fightback.
"It got off to a bad start and that punished us the most and we had to fight back from there. Almida [de Val] made a really good shot for four which fair play to her in such a game to make those shots I bet it's a great feeling for her," Mouat told BBC Sport after the defeat.
"The biggest thing I will take away is that we are able to achieve great things when we come onto such a big stage like the Olympics. We were obviously disappointed last night but we felt we were in a good spot to win that bronze, so we're just going to have to rebound as quickly as possible because both of us have really big weeks next week."
Dodds added: "I don't think either of them made a mistake - the only thing I can think of is that Oscar [Eriksson] made that run back at the end and that was it. It's hard to fight back when your opposition is playing that well. Congratulations to them for winning the bronze they played amazing today."
Mouat now prepares to act as skip for GB in the men's tournament, while Dodds will play second in the women's game as Italy and Norway do battle in the mixed doubles final later on Tuesday.
Ben Knapton
