The Swedes triumphed 8-3 at the Gangneung Curling Centre to add to the gold medals the country won at Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010.

It breaks a tie for the most Olympic crowns with Canada, who topped the podium at Nagano 1998 and Sochi 2014, where they defeated Sweden.

"We produced the game of the week when we needed it in an Olympic final," Sweden’s skip Anna Hasselborg said.

"I'm so proud of my girls.

"It was an amazing game to play.

"I'm overwhelmed with feelings.

"It's crazy."

South Korea’s second-place finish secured the country’s third first-time medal in a sport at these Winter Olympics, having also won its first medals in skeleton and snowboard.

Prior to Pyeongchang 2018, South Korea had only won medals in short track speed skating, speed skating and figure skating.

"We had a chance to beat Sweden in the final today, but as we all know, Sweden is a great curling team," South Korea’s skip Kim EunJung said.

"At the beginning of the game, whatever we did, shot by shot, they tried to protect it.

"In today's game, they owned it.

"Sweden was perfect today."

The South Korean team, affectionately nicknamed the "Garlic Girls" for their garlic-producing home county, opened the scoring with a single point in the first end.

Sweden then blanked the second end before Hasselborg hit out a Korean stone in the third to score two points for a 2-1 lead.

They moved further ahead with a single point steal in the fourth end, when Kim got her angles wrong on a run-back shot.

Kim misjudged her angles again in the fifth end, this time on a double take-out attempt to give up another single point steal and put Sweden into a 4-1 lead at the halfway stage.

South Korea scored again in the sixth end, this time taking a single point when Kim was forced to tap-up and stay with her own stone for one point.

This reduced the Swedish lead to 4-2, but the European powerhouse extended their advantage in the seventh end when, after they split the house early in the end, Hasselborg eventually had a hit and stay for three points to make it 7-2.

South Korea could only score one point in the eighth end, through a nose-hit by Kim.

Then, when Hasselborg succeeded with a hit and stay to give Sweden one point from the ninth end, for an 8-3 lead, South Korea conceded.

Among those in the crowd to witness Sweden’s triumph was their country's two-time Olympic gold medal-winning skip Anette Norberg.

King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf, was also in attendance.

Japan beat Great Britain 5-3 in the bronze medal match, making this a historic landmark Winter Olympics for Asian curling.

The only previous Asian team to win an Olympic medal were China’s women, winners of a bronze at Vancouver 2010.

Prior to this success, Japan was one of two ever-present teams in women's curling without a medal. 

The other, and now only, is the United States.