Welcome to your go-to information to the 2026 Winter Olympics. We’re monitoring the whole lot—from real-life heated rivalries (sure, they exist) to under-the-radar sports activities and shock standouts—so you may compensate for all of our protection in a single place.
Should you’ve come throughout a curling match throughout the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, you have been in all probability a minimum of somewhat intrigued. It might look like a sleepy exercise, devoid of any motion or pleasure, however assume once more. Curling is a difficult sport, and that’s the reason there’s an alleged dishonest scandal stirring up controversy on the Winter Video games.
Curling is commonly thought-about extra of a “gradual” winter occasion, particularly when in comparison with different ones that contain pace, flips, leaps, tumbles, and catching an entire lot of air. Nonetheless, what this sport lacks in dazzling feats, it makes up for with ability and suspense. Nonetheless, to the untrained eye, recognizing the motion isn’t at all times apparent. That’s one purpose you could hear folks poke enjoyable on the sport, joking that the livid ice-sweeping appears to be like extra like housecleaning than an athletic occasion.
However curling deserves respect: In spite of everything, with origins within the sixteenth century, it’s one of many oldest crew sports activities on the earth. And when you be taught extra about it, together with why it’s known as curling, the way it’s received, and what the gamers are actually yelling about, you’ll understand this sport may be chock-full of pleasure too.
What’s curling and when did it grow to be an Olympic sport?
Curling is a crew sport—made up of 4 gamers on every single-gendered crew, or groups of two in blended doubles—that takes place on ice. Gamers are geared up with their very own brush in addition to particular dual-soled sneakers, which permit them to both slide on the ice or grip the ice.
The aim of curling is to slip 44-pound granite stones towards a goal, generally known as a home, within the heart of the ice. To assist the granite stones get to their goal, gamers on the crew are allowed to begin sweeping the ice after it’s thrown. This helps clear away particles that may gradual the stone down or mess with its path; sweeping additionally barely melts the ice, which makes the stone transfer quicker.
In response to the Smithsonian, curling will get its title from how the stone turns (or curls) on the finish of its path on the ice.
Curling made its Olympic debut on the first-ever Winter Video games in Chamonix, France, in 1924. Nonetheless, the game didn’t seem on the Olympic program once more till the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The ladies’s sport made its Olympic debut in 1998, and blended doubles have been added to this system on the 2018 PyeongChang Video games.
How do you win at curling?
Curling is often performed over 10 ends or rounds. In four-person curling, every crew takes turns throwing eight stones every spherical. The groups alternate throws, and 16 stones whole are thrown every spherical. The lead throws the primary two rocks, the second throws the second two rocks, the third throws the third two, and the skip, or the captain, throws the final two.
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