Way back in 2002, I was up late one night during the Winter Olympics
in Salt Lake City. In a mood to watch the competition, I happened upon a curling match. "Curling?!,"
I scoffed, "Surely there's something better than that." I
stayed tuned, though. There was something about the sport that was gripping,
what with its arcane rules, fast-yet-slow action, and alien aspects. I was hooked, and I’ve stayed that way ever since. In
2006, I wrote the piece below, in anticipation of the Turin Olympic Games.
In those years since, popular culture has caught up with The Spark. It might
be human to feel superior to these Johnny-come-latelys -- I mean, when The Simpsons
has built an episode around a cultural phenomenon, surely its time has passed
-- but in the spirit of curlers around the world, I can't help but feel
fellowship with anyone who gets -- and loves -- a bonspiel
of any kind, anywhere.
One winter's day in the dim past, someone saw that a lake had frozen over and said, "Let's go out on the ice and slide rocks at a target."
Those humble beginnings begat curling, the world's most exciting slow-motion sport. Curlers of all ages love to find a bonspiel, lace up their sliders, step up to the hack, and throw 44-pound stones down the ice at the house.
There's more to curling than just sliding rocks, though -- team members also get to scrub the ice with brooms! The team that ends the game with the most stones close to the target wins. If they manage to get all their own rocks and none of their opponents' in the house, though, they score that rarest of feats, an 8-ender -- comparable to a 300 game in bowling.
For those with the bug for freezing, wearing colorful outfits, and trying not to fall, it's heaven on ice.
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