Curling - Team Czech Republic

Czech Republic makes its debut in Olympic curling at Beijing 2022 after multiple near-misses from the Czech men’s team in qualifying for 2014, 2018 and 2022.

Zuzana Paulova and Tomas Paul, who are married, won bronze in their first World Championship appearance at Fredericton in 2013.

They finished no higher than fourth in their next five championships, although they knocked Norway out of the playoffs in 2019 and lost the bronze medal match to PR China in 2017. Most crucial was their seventh-place finish in 2021 as it included a key victory over the United States in a direct qualifying match for Beijing 2022. Paulova made her final shot for two points and the 8-6 win over Tabitha Peterson (who will skip the US women’s team in Beijing) and Joe Polo.

Paulova/Paul are 11-17 in head-to-head matchups against the field in Beijing. They’ve defeated the Swiss in seven of their nine games but are 2-2 in their last four encounters. They defeated Norway for just the second time in September 2021 and lost a one-point game to them on December 30 at Gothenburg.

The pair are 20-7 this season, scoring an average of 8.83 points per game and surrendering an average of 6.55 points per game. This equatesd to one World Curling Tour event victory at Tallinn (defeating Italy in the final), a fourth-place finish at Lodz, three fifth-place finishes (Bern, Biel and Gothenburg) and a bronze at the British Curling Mixed Doubles invitational hosted at Stirling.

World Ranking: 10th (30.248 pts)

© Data by Sports Data Warehouse