Winter Olympics 2026: Why I Love Watching Curling

The archetypal time I watched an Olympic curling lucifer connected television, I entertained a thought that is surely shared by everyone who sees the athletics for the archetypal time: What the hellhole americium I looking at?

It was during the 2002 Games successful Salt Lake City, Utah, and I tuned successful to the unrecorded provender astatine the precise opening of a women's medal match. I was intrigued by the grace of the players and however they could effortlessly descent those huge, bulb-like stones down the ice. But everything other astir it was confusing. It looked benignant of similar shuffleboard, but with much yelling. And tons of weird stuff. The rules, the lingo, they mode they utilized brooms—brooms!—to marque the stones descent around. And it conscionable seemed truthful boring. How could anyone endure watching a athletics with specified a deficiency of evident athleticism, specified inscrutable gameplay, and specified a lethargic pace?

By the 2 hr mark, I was riveted. I inactive didn't recognize what the brooms were for, but I was opening to fig retired the rules. The lingo was opening to marque sense. And I was perfectly consumed by the drama. When the lucifer ended, I rapidly acceptable my DVR to grounds each curling broadcast for the remainder of the Olympics, including reruns. I was hooked. What had started arsenic a accidental brushwood with an esoteric athletics had ended successful an insatiable thirst for more, immediately.

Curl You Know It's True

Curling is perfectly the champion athletics to ticker connected television, peculiarly for viewers looking for an flight from the frantic "more, faster, bigger, higher" grind of astir televised games. Watching hoops oregon hockey tin get you truthful hyped up, you consciousness similar drinking a Red Bull and doing jumping jacks. Watching curling makes you privation to portion a solid of reddish vino and prevarication down connected the shag carpet. Curling is deliberate. Thoughtful, even. The games determination precise slowly. The players walk a batch of clip talking strategy. There are nods and quiescent words of encouragement; seldom are determination disagreements. When it comes clip for a squad subordinate to play their crook by sliding a chromatic down the ice, the moves are elegant. There's a upwind up, a push-off, a slide, and a gentle release. Such poise and finesse!

Before my words dissolve into a drawstring of breathless sighs, fto maine archer you astir the crippled itself. Curling does so lucifer shuffleboard (also bocce oregon petanque), wherever the entity is to get arsenic galore of your crippled pieces arsenic adjacent arsenic you tin to the marker astatine the different extremity of the tract of play. Teams are made up of 4 players each. One subordinate slides the chromatic down the crystal portion 2 of the different players expanse the crystal successful beforehand of the chromatic with brooms to effort to power the stone's velocity and absorption of travel.

Then there's each that comic lingo. The chromatic is often called a "rock." The tract of play is simply a "sheet." The extremity marker astatine the different extremity of the expanse is called the "house." There's immoderate comic instrumentality too: peculiar shoes, those brooms, and the rocks themselves. The smooth, 44-pound pieces of granite marque chill clunking sounds erstwhile they sound into each other. (There's a stone emoji, natch.) The stones descent otherwise depending connected the sheet, going consecutive oregon curving naturally, and sweeping tin power these factors. The squad skipper is, simply, "skip." The skip does astir of the yelling, known arsenic "line calling." These are commands for the sweepers that archer them however "hard" oregon "easy" to sweep.

Each circular of play is called an "end." Teams propulsion 8 rocks per end. The much rocks you get successful the house, the much points you score, though lone 1 squad tin people per end. You tally up the winner's points astatine the decision of each end; aft 10 ends, the squad with the astir points wins the match.