Han Yu (center) of China competes during the Curling Women's Round Robin Session 1 of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics between China and Denmark at the National Aquatics Centre in Beijing, capital of China, February 10, 2022. Photo: Xinhua

The Chinese curling team wrapped up its debut on the women's round robin competition against Denmark and Switzerland at the National Aquatics Centre on Thursday with seven rounds to go before the semifinals on February 18.

On the same day, China lost to Denmark 6 to 7, and Switzerland, 5 to 7.

The Chinese curling team is now lead by Han Yu, born in 2000. She has the shortest training time with the team and is also the youngest leader of all the teams at the Beijing Olympic Winter Games.

Han, who described herself as "pretty calm" in an interview with Xinhua News Agency, was admitted into the national team in 2018 and won the gold medal at Pacific-Asia Curling Championships in 2019.

"I think my biggest progress is that I have learned how to control everything [during a competition], which was once my weakness," Han told the press on Wednesday, adding that she was under huge pressure and did not believe in herself at the very beginning but "confidence grew."

Established in 2002, China's women curling team has been developing fast, winning the silver medal on the 2008 World Women's Curling Championship and claiming gold a year later on the same competition.

In 2010, the team won the bronze medal at Vancouver 2010, described by many media as a "golden period" in Chinese curling history.

However, in the next few years, the young talents of the team have been struggling to write a new chapter in history. In Sochi 2014 and Pyeongchang 2018, the Chinese women curling team successively failed to enter the semifinals.

For the next few days, the team will face rather powerful and competitive opponents, including teams from Sweden and Canada, both ranked in the top five in the World Curling Federation.