Wikipedia Wednesday: Curling

It's funny how the Olympics tend to make us watch sports we would otherwise completely ignore.  When was the last time you cared about skiing, luge, biathlon, or anything else other than hockey?

And yet, people pay hundreds of dollars to see these sports live, and go out to bars to see them with a crowd like they're special things.  That's part of the Olympic phenomenon it seems.  Perhaps the fact that they only come once every four years makes it all seem special.

There is one sport in the Olympics that's in a grey area in terms of spectator interest.  It has enough fans to get televised once in a while, but the general public is only peripherally aware of it.  Most of the people involved in the sport are Canadians, and it has a long tradition in Canada, but most of us react to it with a mix of derision and jest.

I am, of course, talking about curling.

Curling is a team sport in which stones are slid across a sheet of carefully prepared ice towards a target area. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard.

Two teams of four players take turns sliding heavy, polished blue hone granite stones across the ice towards the house (a circular target marked on the ice). The purpose is to complete each end (delivery of eight or ten stones [depending on recreational or competitive play] for each team) with the team's stones closer to the centre of the house than the other team's stones. Two sweepers with brooms or brushes accompany each stone and use stopwatches and their best judgment, along with direction from their teammates, to help direct the stones to their resting place, but without touching the stones.

There are a few obvious and a few non-obvious reasons curling isn't a mainstream televised sport.  It gets a lot of criticism for not requiring a high degree of physical fitness.  Curlers certainly do not look like your typical Olympic athletes.  Canada's men's skip is a middle-aged bald man, and most of our women curlers are well into their 40's.  In fact, one of them (the alternate) is five months pregnant!  This revelation has only fuelled the fire for those claiming that curling is not a real sport, and doesn't belong in a premier competition such as the Olympics.

The reason for curling's pronounced lack of young, firm, sculpted bodies is simple: curling isn't a game of athleticism; it is a game of strategy.

Strategy in an end of curling depends on the circumstances. It depends on the team's skill, the opponent's skill, the conditions of the ice, the score of the game, how many ends remain, and whether the team has last-stone advantage (i.e. the "hammer"). A team may play an end aggressively; that is, to have a lot of stones in play by throwing mostly draws. This makes for an exciting game, but is very risky. However, the reward can be very great. A team may also wish to play an end defensively. This means throwing a lot of hits preventing a lot of stones in play. This is generally considered to be less exciting, and is less risky. A good drawing team will usually opt to play aggressively, while a good hitting team will opt to play defensively.

If you read that entire paragraph and are not confused, you're either a curler, or someone who's been watching quite a bit of curling.  Which brings me to the other aspect of curling that turns a few people off: it's a very esoteric sport, and it has always had a kind of "in crowd" mentality surrounding it.  This is probably because it is a club sport.  You pretty much need to join a curling club if you want to curl.  Kids can skate, ski, or play street hockey anywhere, but as far as I know there is no such thing as "street curling".  During my teens, my family were members of the Calgary Winter Club, which had a curling wing.  The club was very, very firmly divided into two factions: those who curled, and those who did not curl.  The curlers had their rink and their lounge, and we had everything else.  The only times I ever saw them was when they used the locker room (which, due to the non-athletic nature of the sport, was rare).

I could probably go on and on about curling jargon, but I'm hardly an expert.  I only began picking up a few terms during these Olympics, and I just barely know how to keep score.  I know that the stone has to cross the "hog" (or, the "far hog" to be more precise) to remain in play, and that the goal is to get your stone closest to the "button".  The number of stones you have in the "button" when yours is the closest is how many points you get.  If you have the last stone of the "end", this is referred to as the "hammer".  There is also something called a "T line".  I think that's the thing that bisects the "button".  My head hurts.

Back to the article!  I did learn a few cool facts about curling from the Wikipedia page.  The first one is about where the stones come from:

Traditionally, high quality curling stones are made from a specific type of granite called "ailsite", found on Ailsa Craig, an island off the Ayrshire coast in Scotland. Ailsite has very low water absorption, which prevents the action of freezing and melting water from eroding the stone. In the past, most curling stones were made from ailsite, however, the island is now a wildlife reserve and the quarry has closed. The rarity of ailsite has led to high prices for curling stones, as much as US$1,500 for the best stones. Many curling clubs use a lower-grade stone that can cost upwards of $500. There are also stones that use a disc of ailsite as the running surface attached below another type of granite. Very informal neighbourhood curling clubs with limited resources may make cylindrical "curling stones" out of concrete-filled cans or bowls.

Kays of Scotland has been making curling stones since 1851 and has the exclusive rights to Ailsa Craig granite, granted by the Marquess of Ailsa, whose family has owned the island since 1560. The last "harvest" of Ailsa Craig granite by Kays took place in 2002. Kays have said that they harvested 1,500 tons, sufficient to fill anticipated orders through at least 2020. Kays has been the exclusive manufacturer of curling stones for all three Olympics where curling has been a medal sport.

Isn't that the most charming thing ever?!?  Curling stones are so special and rare, they have to come from a tiny Scottish island!  And it's closed forever!!!  Look at how small this island is!  It makes curling feel like some kind of Tolkien story when I learn things like this.

The coolest thing about curling though?  Good sportsmanship.  They may be bald, fat, slow, pregnant, and notoriously unfashionable, but they out-class most other professional athletes when it comes to being good sports.

More so than in many team sports, good sportsmanship is an integral part of curling. For example, celebrating an error by the opposing team, fully acceptable in some sports, is frowned upon in curling. This became somewhat of a problem during the 2010 Winter Olympics. The increase in popularity of the sport led to a situation where many fans did not know curling etiquette and were cheering in inappropriate situations. Even at the highest levels of play, players are expected to "call their own fouls", so to speak, such as alerting the opposing skip if they "burned" a stone. It is also traditional for the winning team to buy the losing team a drink after the game. (This is an interesting contrast to the game of darts, where the loser traditionally buys the winner a drink by way of congratulations.) This is often referred to as the Spirit of Curling.

Isn't that great?  Even if you lose, you get free beer!  Speaking of losing, have you ever watched a total blow-out of a hockey game and wished that the losing team would just give up and call it a night so you can go home/out/to bed?  In curling, that's completely acceptable, even at the highest levels of play.

As noted above in the game play section, it is not uncommon for a team to concede a curling match after it believes it no longer has a reasonable chance of winning but before all ends are completed. Concession is an honorable act and does not carry the stigma associated with quitting, and allows for more socializing. To concede a match, members of the losing team remove their curling gloves (if they wear them) and offer congratulatory handshakes to the winning team. Thanks and wishes of future good luck are usually exchanged between the teams.

I am sold.  Not only do I intend to watch more curling, I also would love to try it.  Any sport that involves minimal athleticism and maximum good times is right up my alley.

Does anyone need a curler on their team with no experience, equipment, or beer money?  Probably not, eh?  Maybe next year.