GANGNEUNG, Korea, Republic Of — There's no need to book a national curling summit just yet.

The Canadian teams are in decent shape at the midway point of round-robin play at the Winter Olympics despite a few hiccups along the way.

While expectations are high after a golden sweep four years ago in Sochi, the reality is the depth of international competition has been on a steady rise over the last quadrennial. Ottawa's Rachel Homan and Calgary's Kevin Koe have experienced that first-hand at the Gangneung Curling Centre.

"What I'm really noticing the last two Olympics is the other countries are hot on everybody's heels if not surpassing (them)," said Canadian women's alternate Cheryl Bernard, who won Olympic silver eight years ago. "But that's good for us. That pushes us to get better."

After seven draws, Homan (2-3) was tied in sixth place with the United States. Sweden (5-0) was in top spot, followed by Japan and South Korea (4-1), and China and Britain (3-3).

Veteran skip Glenn Howard, who's coaching Britain's Eve Muirhead, said the parity is "incredible" at the women's international level.

"I can remember when I saw all the teams coming here I said, 'Any one of these 10 teams can win this,'" Howard said. "And people gave me the hairy eyeball."

Sweden (5-0) was also on top of the men's standings entering evening play. Koe was tied with Switzerland at 4-2, ahead of Japan (3-2) and four teams at 2-3.

The top four teams will make the playoffs. The medal games begin Friday.

Homan dropped three games in a row before extending her modest win streak to two with a 10-8 comeback victory over Switzerland's Silvana Tirinzoni.

Koe, meanwhile, opened with four wins before falling twice, the latest loss an 8-6 decision to Switzerland's Peter De Cruz.

Benoit Schwarz, Switzerland's vice-skip who throws fourth stones, scored four points in the opening end for a commanding early lead. Schwarz's big score was set up by a missed shot from Koe.

"I thought the start sucked. What more can you say?" said Koe. "You give up four in the first end, especially missing the way I did. That was the game."

Although Koe came back with a quick deuce, the Swiss side wouldn't buckle.

"I'd be more worried if we weren't playing well," said Koe. "We played a great game other than my one big miss. Everything is close and the guys are throwing it good. It's not like we are out there missing a lot of shots and worried about the ice and everything.

"We have a good read on the ice so I'm not worried. We've just got to pick it up a hair for the second half."

Howard, who has played against most of the teams in the men's draw, said the depth of the field is also strong in that competition.

"A whole bunch of other teams have come up and raised their game to create a more level playing field," he said. "You still have the top four or five teams in the world a little bit better than everybody else, but not (by) that much."

Homan scored three points in the ninth end and added a single in the 10th for the comeback victory. Tirinzoni faltered with two misses in the ninth and a heavy final rock gave Homan a steal.

"We made some huge shots, some really precision soft-weight shots," Homan said. "We had to make (them) and we had to make them all."

Both Canadian teams were scheduled to resume round-robin play Monday. Koe was to face the United States and Homan was to meet Japan.

"It's anybody's Olympics here," Bernard said. "You're going to have to be at the best and the top of your game to get there."

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