I have been following both the Olympic curling and the SDMB curling discussions with interest, and lived in Canada for a year on the early 90’s and watched a lot of curling and even got to try it once (MUCH harder than it looks!).
My question is: are there gender differences in curling? It appears that most of the stones are thrown for accuracy with respect to speed and placement, but not sheer force or brute strength. Among those with curling experience, do the men usually beat the women, or is this a fair playing field for the genders? Given males and females of equal experience and skill…
At this late hour, being partially intoxicated, I can say with complete confidence that female curlers can achieve a level of inebriation that is the equivalent of nake curlers. Cite: a bonspiel party I just returned from. (burrrrrrp!)
At this late hour, being partially intoxicated, I can say with complete confidence that female curlers can achieve a level of inebriation that is the equivalent of male curlers. Cite: a bonspiel party I just returned from.
Heh… I thought this was going to be about the gender differences in those that watch curling :D. It seems more men enjoy watching curling than women, at least to me.
For some reason, when a post like elmwood’s is duplicated, it’s much funnier. Mods, please don’t remove the duplicate!
There isn’t a lot of inherent male advantage in curling–based on my limited experience, one tends to overthrow the stones more often and more easily than one underthrows them, so less strength might actually be a benefit. I asked one of the women in the club about this once, and she said, “Women just curl differently–their strategies are different, their shots are different, their mindset is different.”
That didn’t help me a lot, so I’d be interested to hear what some of the more experienced curlers have to say.
Joan McCusker, who was on the Canadian Gold medal team in Nagano in 1998, is one of the TSN commentators for curling. I heard her comment on this issue once. She said that in her opinion, the one major difference was that men can throw a rock heavier, which gives them more options on take-outs.
On the other hand, Joan was famous at the 98 Olympics for one particular shot that saved their rink’s bacon in the final: a triple take-out. After they won, the skip, Sandra Schmirler, attributed their win to Joan’s shot cleaning the house, setting them up for the scoreing win.
My Momn was a champion skip in her youth. She can’t watch women curl on TV because it drives her insane; she finds the women curlers maddeningly conservative and unwilling to plan ahead more than a couple of shots. The men, she’ll watch. There’s a definite difference in strategy. She’s convinced it’s a recent change, but I suspect she was just unusually aggressive for a female curler - which might explain her success.
