Before today, I never knew much about Olympic curling. Perhaps it was Cheryl Bernard’s facial expressions as she slid, I mean “delivered”, the stone that caused my initial interest. Team Canada and the other teams are made up of all kinds of women from young to older, petite to athletic, and keen eyed to intense. I am now a fan.
The playing area is called a “sheet”. I will say no more except to note that whoever invented this sport’s vocabulary knew how to interest men in women’s curling. I will bet that inventor is Canadian and is still laughing.
The sport is a combination of croquet, bowling, shuffleboard, and table pool played on ice. One delivers the stone with some “English” called “out-turn” or “in-turn”. Teamates use sophisticated ice brushes to control the speed and drift of the stone to get it into a bullseye. Hitting the opponent’s stone is also allowed. This “take-out” is as important as getting a stone into the bullseye.
The dress code seems strictly enforced. The women must wear black, oversized skateboader’s shoes with smooth bottoms. I suspect there is no golden parachute or big money contracts for curlers. This is amateur sport at its best.
Andy Rooney of “60 Minutes” just said on tonight’s episode that curling was dull. I don’t think he watched long enough to see Canada’s Cheryl Bernard in action.
