Couples in the house: Two husband-and-wife teams talk curling together 

The couple that plays together stays together?

Do you think you could compete with your partner at the Olympics?

That's exactly what happy couples Magnus Nedregotten/Kristin Skaslien and Zuzana Paulova/Tomas Paul are doing in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games mixed doubles curling.

When the two married couples faced off in the round-robin session one we couldn't help but ask:

How do you do it?

Mixed doubles curling is back and bigger than ever at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

Expanded to 120 curlers (60 men and 60 women), and there are some married couples competing side-by-side: Does it get any more #Strongertogether?

Nedregotten/Skaslien and Paulova/Paul served up a round one 7-6 thriller, and while Nedregotten and Skaslien are PyeongChang 2018 bronze medallists, their first match didn't exactly go to plan as Czech Republic couple Paulova/Paul took the victory.

When asked how they play together and stay together Magnus Nedregotten says:

"We need some advice there I think... Better ask the Czechs - they're married as well and they won. We could do with some advice I think!"

Both couples tell us what it's like to curl together on an Olympic stage and how they deal with spending so much time, winning and losing together.

Curling mixed double couples: "We argue sometimes"

So what's it like to curl with your husband or wife?

"It's very fun to be with each other in this adventure - we share everything," Magnus says.

"We argue sometimes and we usually tell the truth to each other which makes the problem come to the surface."

Kristin, his wife, agrees that being open and honest is a big plus.

"It's an advantage to know each other well as then you don't have to wrap things up, you can say exactly what you mean to the other person and then you are done with it and then you can move on.

"So that's an advantage but sometimes it's a challenge playing with your husband on the ice."

"There are some times when she is getting grumpy," says Magnus, "and I'll just (mimes rubbing her arm).

Often spending over 400 hours a year training together on the ice and more hours in the gym, it's a lot of time together.

Zuzana Paulova from the Czech team agrees that there are benefits and challenges.

"For us it is an advantage (being married). We know each other very well, but sometimes it can be kind of challenging, definitely, especially when we needed to stay in isolation together for the last three weeks, maybe four."

"That was pretty difficult! We didn't expect it was going to be such a tough situation spending 24/7 together, so we were absolutely happy when we entered the Olympic Village and we met some people!"

Her husband Tomas couldn't agree more:

"You need some other social contacts than just your wife. I love her but sometimes enough is enough. Three weeks is the maximum!"

"Hot wash"

The Norwegian couple have found a way to leave it all on the ice.

"Right after the game we do a "hot wash" which is like get our feelings out," explains Magnus.

"Then we break for 30/ 60 minutes then we have a team meeting and after the team meeting we close the previous game and it's on to the next game."

After losing to the Czech duo Magnus says: "My hot wash today is that I'm frustrated. So we'll go down to the wardrobe (Changing rooms), chill out for half an hour, then move on."

There's no rule on talking curling in the house either.

"Back home it's more flowing, suddenly it's a curling discussion and we enjoy that. We're not like strict "now it's practice, now it's spare time" - it's flowing all the time."

Zuzana says the support is comforting.

"We know that we are there for each other when things get tough.

"When I missed the really key shots in the match that I usually make I know for him it must be really frustrating.

"But he also knows that it's frustrating for me so it's better not to talk at all! This is something you need to learn, you need to have a partner. You're not two individuals on the ice, you're a team."

Tomas says you forget the husband-and-wife part when the stones start to slide.

"I think on the ice we behave like two athletes not a wife and husband so its like absolutely different relationship than home. You need to focus on the game and not on our emotions and our marriage."

When to watch curling at Beijing 2022

Here's a full schedule and all the results of the mixed doubles curling, you can follow all the action from Beijing here on Olympics.com and across our social media handles @Olympics.