Curling: St. Paul-based Team Peterson wins do-or-die match to qualify for 2026 Olympics

Trailing - early in a do-or-die match St Paul-based Crew Peterson rallied to result eight of the final nine points Thursday in the Olympic Qualification Event in Kelowna Canada to send Norway home with an - win that will send the Americans to the Milano-Cortina Olympic Winter Games After securing the success skipper Tabitha Peterson joined her teammates her sister Tara Peterson Cory Thiesse and Taylor Anderson-Heide threw her arms around them and explained I m so proud of you guys I m just so proud of you Two spots were available in the women s draw at this week s qualification event Japan and Norway finished in a tie for first in the round-robin portion with - marks with the United States in third at - Japan edged Norway - on Wednesday to secure the first spot leaving the United States and Norway to battle it out up north Thursday for the final bid After the Americans went down early Tabitha Peterson informed her crew Well we ve got lots of contest left girls We knew with anything like that there s lots of time to battle back Peterson revealed in her post-match television interview and that s just what we did After falling behind the Americans delivered a three-point end of their own shortly thereafter to knot the match and took control from there Association Peterson won a bronze medal at the World Championships and finished sixth at the Beijing Games Tabitha was part of the squad that finished eighth in the Pyeongchang Games in Since then both sisters have become mothers That s one of the reasons Unit Peterson had to compete in the qualification event with the sisters in and out of the lineup the squad just missed qualifying on international points The association failed to advance out of the round-robin stage at this year s World Championships in March This was the hard way and successfully navigating it clearly meant a lot to Tabitha It s what we ve been training for since four years ago really she mentioned in her television interview It s just really special especially with this group of girls Now being a new mom it s just different it s just really special and I can t wait to go there perform and show everybody what we can do Unit Peterson s preeminence comes a day after the American men a Chaska-based squad skipped by Danny Casper clinched an Olympics berth of its own The Olympic Games are scheduled for Feb - Related Articles IOC president Coventry sets early target for new Olympic guidelines on gender eligibility Lindsey Vonn added pounds of muscle to her frame and is ready for her Olympic season at age Nine Russian and Belarusian skiers get neutral status to compete in Olympics qualifying events Hockey at the Winter Olympics will be played on shorter ice than NHL dimensions US prioritizes visas for fans traveling for the World Cup Olympics and other events