How it unfolded
South Korea fielded a team from Uiseong, Gyeongbuk, made up of Kim Eun-jung, Kim Kyeong-ae, Kim Seon-yeong, Kim Yeong-mi and Kim Cho-hi, and topped the round robin at 8-1, beating Switzerland, Canada and Great Britain along the way. In the semi-final, they tied Japan through ten ends and won 8-7 in an extra end. Their final opponent was Anna Hasselborg's Sweden. The early match was tight, but Sweden broke it open with three points in the seventh end, and South Korea conceded after nine ends trailing 8-3. South Korea's silver was Asia's first Olympic medal in curling. Skip Kim Eun-jung's repeated call of "Yeong-mi," directed at lead Kim Yeong-mi, became a catchphrase across the country during the Games, and the team earned the nickname the "Garlic Girls."
Why it still matters
These two weeks completely reshaped curling's profile in South Korea. Try-curling programmes and club registrations surged nationwide immediately afterward, and curling became one of the winter sports with the broadest popular appeal. For Sweden, this was its first women's gold since Anette Norberg's in 2010, and Hasselborg's team went on to build three Olympic medals starting from this match through Milan-Cortina 2026.