Since 1924, the Winter Olympics presented curling, a prehistoric game created in Scotland in the early 16th century. Relative to bowls and shuffleboard, curling consists of two teams, taking turns gliding weighted, polished and granite stones across the ice, attempting to hit a marked target.
Apart from mixed doubles, a team involving one man and one woman, curling is typically played in teams of four. Two teams each take their try at landing stones inside the “house,” four concentric circles placed at the end of a 150-foot-long rectangular ice sheet, aiming for the center, known as the “button.”
Each team possesses eight stones, with each player throwing two. Then, teams gain points for scoring stones closest to the button, possibly by knocking out their opponents. The game’s purpose is to earn the highest score, which is determined by the stones landing nearest to the button at the completion of each “end.” Ends are finalized once each team has had the chance to throw every stone; a match normally holds 10 ends.
Stones do not slide down the ice in a straight track, they are thrown in a curved direction, known as a “curl.” Players manipulate the trajectory of the stones by following the traveling rocks with brooms and sweeping the ice in front of them. Doing this lessens friction, influencing the stone to move further.
Once all players have had their opportunity to earn points, they turn to the opposite end of the ice sheet to throw their stones. At the Olympics, teams follow this routine 10 times in both the men’s and women’s games.
For players to make a legal delivery, they must release their stones before it crosses the “hog line.” Rubber footholds are mounted to the back center line in which curlers push off them to release their stones efficiently.
In curling, “the hammer” is an advantage given to one team. The team that obtains the hammer always has the benefit of throwing second and shooting the final stone. The team given the hammer is determined before every match by a process known as the “last stone draw.” Two players from each team partake in throwing two stones at the house. The hammer is given to the team with the shortest average distance to the center of the house.
Curling has been an everyday event held at the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. The final day of the Olympics on Feb. 22, declared the United States to fourth place across all teams, with one silver medal in mixed doubles.
