Canadian skip Rachel Homan shouts instructions to her team during their curling match against South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2018.Aaron Favila
Ottawa's Rachel Homan opened her first Olympic curling tournament with a pair of tough round-robin losses.
Homan's team fell 8-6 to EunJung Kim of South Korea and 7-6 in an extra end to Sweden's Anna Hasselborg on Thursday.
Down 5-4 in the ninth end against the Koreans, Homan attempted an aggressive shot rather than drawing for one. The move backfired with Kim stealing a big three points for an 8-4 lead.
Kim scored a deuce in the fifth end to go up 4-1 but Homan replied with two of her own in the sixth and a steal of one in the seventh to tie the game.
Homan fell to 0-2 when the Swedes, with the hammer, drew to the button with their final stone for a point in the extra end.
"It was really close, (the) team stuck with it right through to the end, but Sweden played a phenomenal game and outplayed us," Homan said.
"It's been a tough day but we just need to keep playing the same because we're playing really well. It was just a couple of shots here and there. We have a responsibility to come back and bring our 'A' game. I feel like we did that tonight, there's just a couple of shots that we'd like back which made all the difference."
Canada is the defending Olympic champion. Jennifer Jones of Winnipeg skipped the Canadian team to a gold medal against Sweden at the 2014 Games in Sochi.
The 28-year-old Homan is a three-time national champion and the reigning world champion.
The Globe's Shelby Blackley teaches Patrick Dell the basic differences between traditional and mixed doubles curling, which is new to the Winter Olympics in South Korea. Much falling on the ice ensues.