BEIJING — Any lingering disappointment from her first Olympic loss was quickly erased when Jennifer Jones walked through the interview area at the Ice Cube on Friday.
She passed by Chinami Yoshida as the Japanese vice was telling a reporter how excited she was that Jones was representing Canada because it's her "favourite team."
The two players embraced and shared a hug. "You are my idol," Yoshida told her.
Win or lose, there's a certain mystique that Jones brings to a room, even after an 8-5 round-robin defeat. That presence extends to the ice as well and could be a factor against a less-experienced opponent deeper in the competition.
On this day, Japan's Satsuki Fujisawa outplayed the Canadian side by putting the pressure on early and not letting up. She was perfect through five ends and any second-half mistakes were minimal.
"They played outstanding," Jones said. "They didn't give us a sniff. We'd have maybe a slight opportunity and then they'd make a great shot."
Jones, who ran the table at the 2014 Sochi Games, fell to 1-1. Her rink made a few sweeping errors in the early going and never really settled into a rhythm.
"It was going to be really hard to go through undefeated," Jones said. "It's just such a deep field. We knew that was going to happen."
Switzerland and the United States posted victories to remain unbeaten at 3-0. Silvana Tirinzoni beat Russia's Alina Kovaleva 8-7 and Tabitha Peterson defeated China's Yu Han 8-4.
Canada fell into a five-way tie at 1-1. South Korea's EunJung Kim outscored Great Britain's Eve Muirhead 9-7 in the other women's game.
In evening men's play, Switzerland's Peter de Cruz beat Canada's Brad Gushue 5-3. That left Sweden's Niklas Edin (3-0) as the lone unbeaten skip in the 10-team draw.
Canada fell into a four-way tie at 2-1 with Switzerland, Great Britain's Bruce Mouat and defending champion John Shuster of the United States.
Mouat beat Norway's Steffan Walstad 8-3 and Russia's Sergey Glukhov hammered Denmark's Mikkel Krause 10-2 in the other late matchup.
In the Japan-Canada game, Fujisawa stole single points in three of the first five ends and notched a deuce when she had hammer in the third.
Canada cut into the lead when Fujisawa made her first error of the game, a flashed open hit in the sixth end. Any momentum from that Jones deuce was snuffed in the seventh after Kaitlyn Lawes hogged a stone, setting up a Japanese pair.
Jones and Lawes threw under 70 per cent while Fujisawa led all back-end players at 88 per cent.
"Jen is a great player and so is Kaitlyn, but when you're trying to make tough shots every end, it's difficult," said Japanese coach J.D. Lind.
The next curling generation has arrived at the Beijing Games and many of the game's top young players grew up watching Jones excel.
In addition to her Olympic gold, she has won six national titles and two world titles. Now 47, she will soon reach the milestone of 100 career games played wearing Canadian colours.
It's all part of the aura that accompanies the veteran skip. Many of the sport's younger stars cite her as a major influence.
"If they watched me and I had any influence on what they've done to help the sport of curling, that is to me the greatest compliment you could ever receive," Jones said.
"I'm very humbled by it."
Gushue, meanwhile, scored a deuce in the sixth end to pull even with de Cruz, but a force and a steal gave the Swiss skip a two-point lead entering the 10th.
Switzerland ran Canada out of rocks to win it.
"Our expectation wasn't to go through undefeated by any means," Gushue said. "We know it's going to be a struggle and a grind to get into the playoffs.
"This just makes it a little bit more of a grind."
In early men's games, Switzerland beat Russia 6-3 and the U.S. topped Great Britain 9-7. Sweden dumped Italy's Joel Retornaz 9-3 and China's Xiuyue Ma edged Denmark 5-4.
Russia improved to 2-2 while Norway and China sat at 1-2 ahead of winless Italy (0-2) and Denmark (0-3).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2022.
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Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
