On the ice, these curlers are scowling at each other. Off the ice, they're happily married

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — When Kristin Skaslien brushed off her husband's playful prod, it was hardly grounds for a divorce. Yet it sure revealed some tension in Norway’s curling team at the Winter Olympics.

Then again, giving each other the cold shoulder is hardly new for Skaslien and partner Magnus Nedregotten, one of three married couples in the mixed doubles field at the Milan Cortina Games.

They’ve screamed at each other, exchanged stony glances, rejected high-fives and pats of comfort. Then, after each match, they’ve emerged in good spirits, dismissing their discord as normal.

“A little bit of arguing and discussions isn’t necessarily bad for us,” Skaslien said.

Stress levels are rising at the Olympic Ice Stadium with the semifinals in sight — and the married couples told The Associated Press that good communication is the key to success.

For Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant of Canada and Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann of Switzerland, there's an added wrinkle: both brought their young children to the Olympics.

Adding to the family feel is Sweden's brother-and-sister team Rasmus and Isabella Wranå, who are curling together after growing up as rivals. Their coach, Alison Kreviazuk, finds it easier to coach siblings than couples.

“If you quarrel with your siblings, you find a way back. They're used to that dynamic of maybe play-fighting a little bit,” she said. “Bella can be on the hotter end, and Rasmus is very cool, so it’s a good combination.”

Skaslien and Nedregotten, bronze medalists at Pyeongchang in 2018, have a routine after coming off the ice. They call it the “hot wash.”

“Just after finishing a game, we say one emotion to each other,” Nedregotten told the AP. “I will say I’m angry, she will say ‘I’m pissed.' Then we go for half an hour to our separate spaces and come back together to analyze what was actually the objective. We usually manage to shake it off."

“Sometimes we are our own worst enemies out there,” Skaslien added. “We have to keep it down and not get over the top, because it can get really messy.”

They got together in 2008, when Skaslien was competing in the European curling championship and Nedregotten was working on the ice crew. She spotted the quirky fellow as he bopped around the bleachers wearing a wig. They spoke for the first time at a honky-tonk curling party (yes, you read that correctly) in spring 2011.

When Skaslien went abroad for an internship, Nedregotten volunteered to “water her plants” -- which is to say, he moved in. A year later, they teamed up for mixed doubles.

Curling isn’t exactly ice hockey. Physical fights don’t erupt on the ice. If you ask curling couples how competing together impacts their relationship, and they’ll tell you everything is dandy.

Still, curlers’ facial expressions and interactions on the ice tell a somewhat different story.

It’s an intimate — at times agonizing — sport. Between each throw curlers must consult with their partners about where to place their next stone, a task that often involves barking commands – and settling disagreements -- in yells across the ice, their words audible to crowds and the opposing team.

No one scrutinizes a mixed doubles curler’s throws and sweeping as much as their partner. They win together, they lose together. And if they’re married, they then have to go home together.

“There’s only two of you. You’re on an island,” said Devin Heroux, a longtime curling commentator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “Information sharing. communication and being able to embrace and adapt to the changing conditions will be what allows one of these teams to win gold.”

As the Norwegians bicker, the Swiss and Canadian teams keep it more low-key. Indeed, Schwaller and Schwaller-Hürlimann have been the closest thing to lovebirds in the mixed doubles field — exchanging a quick kiss prior to their match.

That doesn't mean everything's perfect, and Schwaller took the fall for being the occasional instigator.

“In the past, I was like just really nice and now sometimes I’m not nice. So I need to apologize and everything is good again,” he said.

After the match, they headed straight for their one year old, River. Photos of him carrying a broom roughly double his size made him an overnight sensation in the curling community, with fans dubbing him the “Curling baby.”

Schwaller-Hurlimann said it broke her heart to see him so sparingly between games.

“After today’s game, when I had to give him back, he was crying and it was hard for me," she said. "That was the first time my mum heart was bleeding.”

As for the Canadians, it's not obvious by their conduct they are husband and wife.

“They’re both very professional in the way they handle things," said their coach, Scott Pfeifer.

Gallant says communication is “honestly, always a work in progress.” When it's flowing, he said, “we seem to have success.”

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller, left, and Yannick Schwaller strategize during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Czechia at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Sweden's Rasmus Wranaa and Isabella Wranaa hug during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Canada, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Canada's Brett Gallant and Jocelyn Peterman speak,during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Switzerland's Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Huerlimann kiss during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Britain, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Norway's Magnus Nedregotten and Kristin Skaslien in action during the mixed doubles round robin phase of the curling competition against Estonia, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Misper Apawu)

PREDAZZO, Italy (AP) — An early photo of the Prevc ski jumping clan shows teenager Peter eyeing three little siblings — Nika, Domen and Cene — perched on the edge of a sofa, tiny torsos tucked over bent knees and arms stretched back as if about to launch themselves to Olympic glory.

Sixteen years later, three of the four are now Olympic medalists after Nika won silver on Saturday on the women’s normal hill. And there may be more hardware to come: Domen enters Monday’s men’s competition as the current top male ski jumper in the world.

“At that time I didn’t know that the photo would be so great and so historical,” Gorazd Kavcic, who snapped the picture for a newspaper in the region of Slovenia where the Prevcs grew up, told The Associated Press. “I hope Domen will bring the Olympic medal home so the four of the Prevcs own Olympic medals. It's amazing.”

The Prevc athletes are national heroes back home, though they are hardly known outside the rarefied world of ski jumping.

The first Olympics for Nika, 20, and Domen, 26, could change that, particularly if they repeatedly step onto the podium as is widely expected.

It all began for the family more than 20 years ago in the village of Dolenja Vas in southern Slovenia when Peter as a young boy got bored skiing and started building small jumps to make it more exciting.

“They got bigger and bigger and when I was around 10 years old the jumps were already 25 meters long, and I was kind of enthusiastic for it,” Peter Prevc said. “My father saw my enthusiasm and he drove me to the ski jumping club.”

Peter said the others followed his path because they saw he was having fun and that's what sparked their passion and motivated them.

When Kavcic took the photo in 2010, Peter had entered the World Cup circuit and was beginning to make a name for himself.

The younger ones were either learning to jump or, like Nika, keen to get started.

Nika said her ambition was always to compete on the world’s largest stage.

“My childhood dreams are coming true,” she said after her second-place finish. “Now I will continue and go on.”

Cene attributes their unusual success to the values their father, who owns a furniture business and is a ski jumping judge and mother, a librarian, taught them: to excel at whatever they do.

Kavcic thinks the success was due more to the amount of practicing the children did. Their father was constantly shuttling them from one hill to the next.

Another factor is likely due to the ski jump-crazy nation’s development program for promising skiers, said Tomi Trbovc, a team spokesperson. All of the siblings attended a special school in Kranj in the north, where skiers are educated around daily training sessions.

Peter, 33, is a four-time Olympic medalist who won gold in the mixed team jump four years ago in Beijing. Cene, 29, shared a team silver with his brother in Beijing in the team event.

Both are now retired, though still associated with the sport. Peter is head of equipment development for the Slovenian ski jumping team and Cene, who does standup comedy, is doing TV commentary during the Milan Cortina Games.

Nika, 20, and Domen, 26, are reigning World Champions on the large hill, and Nika also holds the title for the normal — or shorter — hill. The two hold the records for the longest jumps ever and have dominated World Cup competition this season.

Domen said that even though he fantasized of some day being in the Olympics, he never believed it would happen and said it was amazing to be there.

“They always told me that your brothers are successful, but you’ll never manage to get there," he said. "Sometimes people tell you some things, but they tell you maybe to give you a chance to prove them wrong.”

Nika entered the normal hill event Saturday as the favorite to win, but technical mistakes at the take off of one jump and landing of the other cost her the gold to Anna Odine Stroem.

Stroem was gracious in victory, saying she had figured the main competition was for second place behind Prevc. Referring to Prevc's prowess in ski flying, the largest of jumping hills, she said: "we get to ski-fly and watch Nika almost never land.”

Although Nika failed to win Saturday, she became the first woman to join a brother — two in her case — to win Olympic medals in the sport.

Domen dismissed his 21st place showing in Sunday's practice round as not very important and said the real test will come Monday.

If he medals then in the men’s normal hill, it would mark the first time brother and sister ski jumpers have medaled at the same Olympics.

Depending on the outcome of that event, the two siblings could also join forces for the mixed team even Tuesday.

There is a younger sibling, Ema, who is still in school, but there's no chance she will end up in the Olympics, Cene Prevc said.

“She never even had a slight interest to perform in a ski jumping,” he said. “The only smart one in the family.”

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Gold medalist Anna Odine Stroem, of Norway, right, applauds silver medalist Nika Prevc, of Slovenia, on the podium of the ski jumping women's normal hill individual, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Predazzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Domen Prevc, of Slovenia, takes his position on the ramp for a jump during a ski jumping, men's normal hill, training session, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Predazzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Domen Prevc, of Slovenia, waits his turn for a jump during a ski jumping, men's normal hill, training session, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Predazzo, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)

Nika Prevc, of Slovenia, poses after winning the silver medal in the ski jumping women's normal hill individual, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Predazzo, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

From left, Domen, Nika and Cene Prevc gesture as their older brother Peter looks on, in the living room of the Prevc family house, in Dolenja Vas village, in Slovenia, March, 22, 2010. (Gorazd Kavcic via AP)