Olympic Fact of the Day - Curling

I love the Olympics. A lot of people love only the summer Olympics. Not me, I love the winter Olympics. Maybe one reason is that I don't feel guilty sitting around watching them. When the summer Olympics are on, I feel like I should be out playing basketball, or baseball, or running, or swimming, or something. But the winter Olympics are pure spectacle. Realistically, I can't go out and bobsled. I don't think there's an ice rink within a hundred miles, and Virginia doesn't have such great skiing. So that leaves me, a tv, and a case of cold beer. I love the Olympics.

So to build spirit and enthusiasm, I'm offering daily or semi-daily Olympic Facts. Today, I begin with curling.

Fact: Curling is not easy.
Fact: Curling is super awesome.

You need to watch curling. If you start watching curling, you won't be able to stop. I first got into it in 2002, when I was a senior in college. My friend and I had nothing else to do, so we started watching curling. At first we thought it was just funny. Then we realized it was funny and super awesome.

The game is played by two teams of four. Each team has four positions: skip, lead, second, and third. Each player takes a turn throwing forty pound granit stones, each team alternating. The players try to leave the stones in the house, which is the big circle at the other end. Each round is called an end. At the finish of an end, the team with the stone closest to the center of the house, called the button, gets a point for that stone. It also gets a point for each stone it has that is closer than the opponents closest stone. So if the order of stones radiating from the button goes: Team 1, Team 1, Team 2, Team 1, Team 2, then Team 1 scores 2 points.

It is an advantage to have the final throw, obviously, because you can slam other stones out of the way, or capture victory. The team that lost the prior end, or if there was no score, the team that had the hammer in the prior end, has it in the next end. So sometimes, if you have the hammer and only have a shot for one point, you may want to try to score zero so you can have the hammer again in the hopes of score more, say two or three.

The ice is not like normal ice rink ice. It has little bumps on it. I guess they spray the ice down with water to give it that texture. The texture is necessary to get the stones to slide evenly and to be able to curl. Also the texture is used by the brooms. Two of the players sweep in front of the stone to affect its trajectory. The sweeping makes the ice more slippery for a short period, which allows the brooms to control how far the stone slides, and in which direction it moves.

There is actually a good deal of strategy involved, in terms of where you want to leave your rock, both so as to score and to block. I guess when you have the hammer, you're kind of on offense, but you really are playing offense and defense all the time. The whole game is the perfect blend of strategy, skill, and luck, to make it addictive.

After my friend and I, and later some of our other friends, got into curling, we found out that there was a local curling club in Philly, and that they were doing their annual open house that very day. We rolled out into Paoli and partook. It is not easy. Even the seemingly simplest parts, like crouching and throwing the rock, are very difficult. None of us ever really got it down.


Curlers, by the way, are awesome. Curling clubs are like all the cool and fun aspects of a country club without the pretention. At least from our experience. All the members, who knew we were college students and not prospective members, gave us advice, beer, food, beer, told curling jokes, and gave us more beer. It was awesome.