Whenever Stefania Constantini sent a stone on its journey at this Olympic curling tournament, she seemed immediately enthusiastic: "Buona linea" she called after each individual stone.

"Good line", a self-praise - but that also meant that her partner Amos Mosaner didn't have to show too much effort with the broom to show the stone the right way, as he curled quickly towards the intended goal anyway.

Achim Dreis

sports editor.

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"Buona linea" became the dictum of the preliminary round in mixed doubles, because the only 22-year-old Stefania Constantini and her partner, who was four years older, made an unexpected triumphal march through the Olympic tournament: 9:0 was the impeccable record of the CC Dolomiti team after the "Round Robin", the competition based on the motto "everyone against everyone" - and that was followed by a sensational 8:1 victory over the Swedes Almida de Val and Oskar Eriksson in the semifinals.

As is the case with the Olympics, the often ridiculed outsider sport of curling takes its place in television coverage, as it is played every day.

And so it happened that the whole of Italy fell in love with an athlete - at least if you believe the "Gazzetta dello Sport".

Stefania Constantini pursues her sport, which is still considered curious, with contagious passion and grace, and she forms a cordial duo with Amos Mosander that apparently complement each other perfectly.

Constantini was born under the sign of Aries, which is generally considered a sign of strong willpower.

Her father was an ice hockey player, her boyfriend is an ice hockey goalkeeper, but Stefania loved ice stock sport, a kind of pre-school version of curling, even as a primary school student.

She lives in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the Olympic city of 2026, which gave another impetus to her Olympic dreams.

At the age of 16 she had already taken part in the Youth Olympic Games in Lillehammer, where she finished fifth in the mixed doubles.

After her education, she took a sabbatical to focus solely on perfecting her game.

Daily visits to the gym and an extensive cardio program should get you in shape for curling at the Olympics.

But as is the case in an Olympic fringe sport, the young woman also worked in a clothing store until recently in order to be able to afford her sporting hobby.

She narrowly missed the games in Pyeongchang 2018 in the Italian women's team around Skip Diana Gaspari.

But now Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner seem to be in top form.

In the "Ice Cube" they showed no let-up, even after they had long since qualified for the semi-finals: in the ninth and last match against Olympic champions Canada, for which it was still a matter of entering the final round, Constantini/Mosaner fought for every stone and won ultimately 8:7 in the extra end.

Canada was eliminated, and thus a potential contender for the medals in the race.

In the semifinals, the Olympic debutants dismantled the Swedes and already secured a medal for Italy.

Gold or silver will be decided this Tuesday (1.05 p.m. CET in the FAZ live ticker for the Olympics, on ARD and on Eurosport) in the final against the experienced team from Norway.

36-year-old Kristin Skaslien and her five-year-old partner Magnus Nedregotten won the bronze medal at the 2018 Olympics.

But they also suffered an 8:11 defeat against Italy in the preliminary round in Beijing.

They had nothing to oppose the "good lines" of Stefania Constantini.