Lill and Kaldvee’s dream of gliding down a sheet of pebbled ice, a rock in hand, at the Olympic Games has been a slow burn.
The duo first competed at the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships in 2016, when the event was still open entry. The target then was PyeongChang 2018, where the mixed doubles discipline – a tighter, more aggressive version of the four-player game – was to make its Olympic debut.
“If you think about how many years that is, it’s quite a few,” Lill said with a smile to Olympics.com in Fredericton. “So, it’s about time to do it.”
The pair went to seven subsequent world championships, each time with the intention to make it to the Olympics, but it was not until the 2024 World Mixed Doubles Championships that their long-awaited breakthrough finally came.
The Estonians went on a dream run at the tournament in Östersund, Sweden, to finish in second place. It was a historic victory and with it, they managed to secure an enviable batch of Olympic Qualification Points, points that set them up strongly for Milano Cortina 2026 qualification at this year’s edition.
“The memories start from almost not qualifying to qualifying, then beating Canada to go to the semis, then beating Norway to get to the final, and we’re like, what just happened?” Kaldvee recalled of the record-breaking day, which saw them win the Team of the Year prize in Estonia.
“It was quite a rollercoaster,” Lill agreed.