How Italy fell in love with curling at the Beijing Games

“Stupendi!”

An Italian commentator yells as Stefania Constantini’s final, decisive stone delivers its intended knockout blow.

“Medaglia d’oro! Medaglia d’oro!” The other screams into his microphone confirming the fairytale result the two had just witnessed before their eyes.

With her last throw of the match, 23-year-old Constantini and her mixed doubles partner 27-year-old Amos Mosaner had done the improbable: clinched Olympic curling gold medal at Beijing 2022.

The pair, before from a country with little pedigree in the sport put together not even a year before the Games were due to start, had gone from unfancied to unbeaten in 11 games and owners of Italy’s first ever Olympic medal in the sport.

Mosaner and Constantini had treaded a perfect path to the podium, collecting every single scalp along the way including that of reigning world champions Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds of Scotland.

For a mesmerised Italy watching to see if these two unlikely heroes would win in a sport that rarely pierces the mainstream their triumph was quite simply unbelievable.

It was a miracle on ice.

Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner results at Beijing 2022

Round robin

• Italy v United States – 8-4
• Italy v Switzerland – 8-7
• Italy v Norway – 11-8
• Italy v Czechia – 10-2
• Italy v Australia – 7-3
• Italy v Great Britain – 7-5
• Italy v People’s Republic of China – 8-4
• Italy v Sweden – 12-8
• Italy v Canada – 8-7

Play-offs

• Italy v Sweden – 8-1

Gold medal game

• Italy v Norway – 8-5

As Mameli’s Hymn began to sound out in Beijing’s Ice Cube Constantini, standing alongside Mosaner, couldn’t help but grin as she sang.

The magnitude of their achievement was beginning to sink in.

With just 350 registered members before the Games in Beijing, curling has always struggled to capture the Italian imagination the ways other sports have.

In the history of the Winter Games, the European nation has been far more successful on snow than on ice, with 23 of its 42 Winter Olympic golds coming from the alpine and cross-country skiing disciplines.

At Turin 2006 curling made national conversation when the hosts were automatically qualified for the event. But despite having skin in the game the sport failed to truly take off with Italy’s lack of rinks turning off any enthusiasts that had been inspired.

'La Mossa del Pinguino,' an Italian comedy film released in 2013 about four unlikely men who discover curling and try to make it to the Olympics all but confirmed a national mood that had curling pinned as an outsider's sport and one Italy would never truly excel in.

It was against this backdrop that Mosaner and Constantini both learned how to curl.

Mosaner started the sport following in the footsteps of his father, learning in his local rink in Cembra. Constantini began curling at age eight after being introduced by a friend in Veneto.

Both fell in love with the sport straightaway and did their best to climb to the top despite the lack of awareness surrounding it.

Constantini rose quickly through the ranks to make her international curling debut at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer. A year later she secured a spot on the women’s senior team as a second.

2017 was a year of highs and lows for the Italian, who won bronze with her rink at the Europeans but then failed to qualify for PyeongChang 2018. She would know that same heartbreak again, when as skip, she and her rink would also miss out for a spot at Beijing 2022.

Like his mixed doubles partner, Mosaner similarly had a bright junior career for Italy.

After skipping his country to silver at the 2012 Winter Youth Olympics Games the Trentino native joined the men’s national team where he has since made two Olympic appearances, won three European Curling bronze medals (2018, 2021 and 2022), and a world championship bronze at this year’s edition of the event.

As for their meeting, Mosaner and Constantini’s competition paths crossed in May 2021 when the two teamed up for the World Mixed Doubles Championship.

Though not having competed in mixed doubles since her the Lillehammer 2016 Constantini's chemistry on the ice with Mosaner developed almost straight away.

The duo won seven of their nine round robin games in Aberdeen to finish the event fifth overall, and crucially earned Italy a quota spot at the Games in Beijing where they would go on to re-write history.

Can Italy stay in love with curling for Milano-Cortina 2026?

Ever since their remarkable triumph Mosaner and Constantini have not stopped embracing the spotlight.

Their aspiration is that their victory in Beijing will see Italy double down on its new love for the sport ahead of the Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games in 2026.

“I think this win can give the movement a big push. It was what we've probably been waiting for because in Italy curling is not very popular and deserves to be practised. We got many fans into this sport,” Constantini told Olympics.com after the win in Beijing.

“For sure it's something very positive, everyone followed our performances in Beijing. Many have discovered a sport that they didn't know before and let's hope that over the next four years more people will start practising curling,” Mosaner added.

Their hopes, it seems, are not in vain.

Already a new sports facility is being built in the village of Bresso, near Milan, with three dedicated curling sheets. There are also expectations that a second sports center will follow in the next few years.

By opening more rinks, the ambition is that more people will be able to participate in curling in time for Italy's next Winter Olympics.

And given what Mosaner and Constantini achieved without the support of other curling powerhouse nations, Italy is already beginning to get excited about the future of the sport and what other medals might follow with more people able to play.