DC Games 2014: Curling is Back!

By DC Cueva

@DC408dxtr

Today is Day 4 of competition at the Sochi Olympic Winter Games. And with a weekend golden sweep of snowboarding's slope style by the U.S., alpine competition underway and the Games now getting into full gear with the big names and events still to come - including Shaun White on the half pipe tonight, yesterday was day 1 of the sport that, thanks to the last time the Games were held in the U.S., has become our February cult addiction every four years.

In Salt Lake City in 2002, the Winter Olympics were held amidst the backdrop of a country recovering from what happened five months earlier. We saw the scandal involving the judging at pairs figure skating, the emergence of Apolo Ohno, Sarah Hughes' stunning free skate to a surprise gold, the Americans being buoyed by immense national pride to an unprecedented 34 medals, and other events that became this generation's most-significant Winter Games. But the surprise of Salt Lake came by way of sweeping and rock stars of a different kind. That year saw the coming out party on the worldwide stage of the sport of curling.

   For a sport that was relatively unknown outside of Canada and Europe prior to February 2002 - and though it made its return as a Olympic sports four years earlier, Salt Lake would be the first time that many got to watch this mesmerizing sport that lacks the speed of speed skating & hockey, the danger of the downhill, the fun of freestyle skiing & snowboarding, or even the grace of figure skating. But somehow, fans around the world and in America suddenly became fascinated by teams sweeping curling rocks down a rink into a house of circles, players shouting "hurry hard!" at heart's content, and something that was totally different than the Winter Olympic sports they have been accustomed to.

   Alongside wall-to-wall hockey coverage and the Nordic events, NBC programmed a lot of curling on MSNBC & CNBC during the Salt Lake Games, and in addition to entertaining the Canadian & European nationals in town used to watching the sport on TV, it suddenly caught the attention of those watching who hadn't seen a sport as enthralling as curling. And in that year's gold medal finals, last rock draws to the house separated gold & silver and provided great television: for the men, Canadian skip Kevin Martin's draw to the button slipped a few inches far and Norway took home gold; while for the women, Scottish skip Rhona Martin's last rock hit on a Swiss stone gave Great Britain their first Winter gold since Torvill & Dean.

   In the end, curling became the breakout hit of the Games, following along the lines of other Olympic sports that saw a spike of interest among an audience used to the team sports and a few individual sports. The succeeding Games in Torino and Vancouver have seen an increase of hours and viewership as a result of Salt Lake, including being given the spot of following CNBC's business day coverage. This also set a precedent for fans' interests in ordinary games outside of the usual sports diet to be given TV exposure, including the eventual rise one year later of televised poker. And worldwide, the sport has now showed up in warmer locales like Greece and Spain. It's even caught the attention of the San Francisco 49ers, who have been showing support for curling since Vancouver.

The history of curling dates back to Scotland, where it was likely introduced by immigrants in the 16th-17th century, and rules were written in Perth, SCO, where the Curling Museum resides, and eventually being codified in 1838 when the first curling club was founded. By the time the first major tournament was held in Edinburgh in 1847, it exported across the pond to Canada. And recognizing the sport's ties to its spiritual homeland, every day of competition at every major curling bonspeil (tournaments are also called that) is preceded by Scottish bagpipes performing before the first rocks are delivered. It was a medal sport at the very first Winter Olympics in 1924 in Chamonix, France before being dropped from the program afterwards. The first world championships began in 1959 for the men, the women 20 years later and have been held every year, with Canada hosting one or the other every alternating year. In the Olympics, it was only a demonstration sport five times between 1932 and 1992 before finally regaining full-medal status in Nagano, eventually becoming one of the highlights of the Games by the time Vancouver welcomed the world in 2010. There, Martin would win his gold in front of the home crowd.

To put the sport into perspective for you, it's relatively simple, and it also has the same exact element as shuffleboard, only this one is taking place on ice. The objective: sliding stones on a sheet of ice towards the tee, and score as many points as you can by having as many stones closer to the button in the house than that of your opponents' rocks. And in the end, the team with the most points wins, although like match play golf, it doesn't have to go the required 10 ends and matches can end early if the teams feel one side is up by an insurmountable margin late in the game. But like baseball, if there is a tie after ten ends, extra ends are played until one side wins.

   There are four players per side: the skip - or captain, the vice-skip - third, a second, and a lead; and all four players deliver their stones in counter-clockwise order with the skip taking his or her stones last in an end, for which are 10 of them in each game. Each of those players throw two rocks per end for a team total of 8, and possibility exists for a team to score 8 points in one end, which is almost as rare as a unassisted triple play in baseball or a royal flush in poker - doesn't happen often.

   They must release their stone before it crosses the nearest hog line, then two teammates help to control the stone's trajectory by sweeping the ice with their brooms, taking it into the house where the skip is standing aiming to put his or her intended shot in, and hope it curls enough to get it done. Often times, especially early in an end, the leads and seconds may place their stones in the "free guard" zone to block the opponents from accessing the house, and they're exempt since they're not allowed to remove the other team's stones within the zone.

For golfers, we know there's a tee shot, approach, putt, sand save and scramble among other things. For curlers, there's a lot of shots for them to choose from.

- The simplest shot is the draw: a throw that lands the rock in the house.

- A guard is where a rock is placed in front of the house to block opponents from accessing it.

- A raise shot is where a rock enters the house and bumps another stone closer to the tee line.

- A takeout is a shot that removes another rock from play. And for the offense, it's their intention to take out that of their opponents.

- A raise takeout is a shot that's delivered with enough force to take their opposition's rock out and go into the house itself.

- A direct hit is where the incoming rock hits the opponents' stone and knock it out of the house.

And now about those rocks? They weigh as much as 44 lbs., or 20 kg, and can cost up to $1,500. Those rocks are made of granite from island of Alisa Craig off the Scottish coast of Ayrshire, and recently the island was put up for sale. I would suspect the lucky party who puts up the money necessary to own the island will likely become the biggest fan of curling in the world.

All in all, the sport of curling is mesmerizing, unique and one-of-a-kind. The Olympics always offers something for everyone, and on a Winter Olympics program that features a kind of edge of speed and danger not necessarily found in its summer counterparts, along with the grace & elegance of figure skating of course, curling is something totally different. Curling might not have all of the attributes that's found in the other Winter Olympic sports, but yet it's fun and it's a game that anyone can try out, much like a family night at the bowling alley. Can't wait to see how the 2014 edition of Olympic curling will play out.

Keep it here on DCBLOG for plenty of Games 2014 posts during Sochi 2014 as we cover various aspects of the Olympics, the sports and events from Olympic world, taking the SocialPulse of key moments and so much more as the action unfolds from Russia. And Twitter @DC408dxtr will offer live tweeting (Pacific time) of television coverage including tonight's primetime show and live streaming & cable coverage, time permitting.

   Also, @DC408dxtr will live tweet (PT) tonight's episode of Are You The One? after the primetime show as a huge twist rocks the house in Hawaii just a week after the twist on Real World Ex-Plosion. Follow us here for coverage of those shows including a SocialPulse diary of tonight's AYTO coming up tomorrow, interview alerts, and later this week, a Fan's View of the RW After Shows that took place following EP's 3 & 5.

   In all, a very busy night coming up for me here, so be sure to join me on twitter for our live tweet fest starting at 7:30pm PT. For now, until I join you on twitter and then here on the blog tomorrow, stay warm and enjoy the Olympics and Are You The One?. See you then.

- DC