2022 Beijing Winter Games curling odds, picks: Best bets for Saturday's gold-medal matches from veteran Olympics expert

Curling has been a staple of the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, with matches starting on Feb. 2, two days before the Opening Ceremony. It all comes down to Saturday, when the biggest honors will be awarded after the men's and women's gold-medal matches in the 2022 Olympics curling competitions. 

Great Britain will be vying for gold in both events, with the British men taking on Sweden on Saturday morning at 1:45 ET. The women will be on the sheet to face Japan at 8 p.m. ET.    

Before you lock in any Beijing Olympics 2022 picks or predictions, you need to see what SportsLine's Olympics expert, Mike Tierney, has to say. (Head over to SportsLine's 2022 Olympics page for more analysis and updates.)

A national sportswriter whose work appears in The New York Times and Los Angeles Times, Tierney has covered nine Olympic Games in person. For Rio in 2016, Tierney profited big-time. He told readers to bet Over on Team USA's gold medal count (41.5) and Over on Team USA's overall medal count (102.5). The result? 46 golds, 121 medals and two easy cashes.

For the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Tierney hit two of his three predictions: Germany (+200) to win the most gold medals and the United States winning Under 10.5 gold medals (+110). And at last year's Tokyo Games, he correctly predicted the United States would go Over 111.5 total medals (-110).

Now, Tierney has analyzed Saturday's men's and women's curling gold-medal matches and locked in his confident picks on the winners. You really have to see which teams he is backing before locking in any 2022 Beijing Olympics picks. 

Will Great Britain be able to pull off a gold-medal sweep in the 2022 Beijing Olympics curling finals? Or will the Japanese women or Sweden's men -- or both -- finish atop the podium? Join SportsLine right now to find out which teams you should back to win curling gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, all from the expert who has crushed his Olympics picks!

Here are Tierney's picks and analysis: 

Women's Curling Final  (Saturday, 8:05 p.m. ET)
Great Britain vs. Japan

Pick: Japan (+134)
Let's go with one final long shot as the Olympics flame is about to be extinguished. Japan downed the British for a bronze medal in 2018 and is coming off an upset of top-seeded Switzerland in the semifinals. Britain showed some vulnerability in going extra to eke past Sweden in the other semifinal match. Because the Japanese went 5-4 in the round-robin phase, it has drawn much longer odds than the Brits (-172), who were 8-1. The British are surely the favorite, but not by the margin the odds suggest.
Odds: FanDuel

Men's Curling Final (Saturday, 1:45 a.m.)
Great Britain vs. Sweden

Pick: Sweden (-111)
After a 7-0 start in round-robin play, Sweden tailed off with a pair of losses. Britain reeled off seven straight wins following a defeat in its second game to the U.S. Hence, the Brits are a slight favorite at -128. History and experience give the Swedes a narrow edge. They are three-time defending Olympics champions and the reigning world titlists. The British are much younger -- no player is older than 30 -- and all are Olympics first-timers. The veteran Swedes likely relaxed at the end of the preliminary round, knowing they would move on, and they hold the upper hand here.
Odds: FanDuel

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