:dubious:
It’s just about the only interesting sport in the winter olympics. I’m surprised so few had ever heard of it: they show it every olympics.
I don’t think NBC prime time shows it every Olympics. I caught it today at 6am on one of the cable stations, which I only see if I’m at the gym.
I think it’s interesting, but I couldn’t watch a whole game, if that’s what it’s called. I have heard of it, my co-worker has license plates that read ‘T LINE’, and a woman I know is trying to get a bunch of us to go play with her at a rink near here. I think the woman team last time was all from Madison here, Erika Brown’s team. But when you compare it to watching downhill skiing, or snowboarding, skating or some of the other ones, I don’t think it really hold the average persons attention as well.
I’m pretty sure I’ve seen curling in the olympics since I was a little kid. It’s not like it gets televised at any other time.
You’re either very young or very old. Curling was in the 1924 Winter Olympics (Chamonix), then not included again until 1998 (Nagano).
Well, my mistake, slightly; curling was a demonstration sport in 1932 (Lake Placid), 1988 (Calgary) and 1992 (Albertville).
who knew, bocce on ice :smack:
I like Baileys over crushed ice.
It’s party time on the Rock. Gushue just won gold, blowing the game open in the 6th end after missing an open draw(!) for seven(!!!) and having to “settle” for six points. The Fins conceded the game after the 8th end with the score at 10-4.
Might have seen it on the CBC. Growing up, we used to get Toronto channels on cable, and curling aired frequently on CBC on Saturday afternoons during the winter.
It seemed like there was less shouting from the skips 20 years ago.
Damn. I’ve never curled (although a local club is having an open house this weekend, so I might go to that) but I’ve seen it enough to kind of know how it goes. How on earth do you get six rocks (and nearly seven) without the other team getting one closer or taking some out? I just can’t picture how the end would play out to give one team so many points, especially at that level of competition.
Might have seen it on the CBC. Growing up, we used to get Toronto channels on cable, and curling aired frequently on CBC on Saturday afternoons during the winter.
It seemed like there was less shouting from the skips 20 years ago.
The other team misses a lot of shots.
It’s not quite as ridiculous as it might seem on its face. Sure, if the Finnish skip had thought after 4-5 rocks that the end was going seriously pearshaped he could have pulled out the big weight and made a few doubles and held Canada to a couple points. Probably. But at that point he wasn’t trying to hold Canada to 2 or 3. He was still trying to hold Canada to 1, and maybe even steal one - and right up until he blew his last shot (wrecked on a guard attempting a delicate hit and roll), he could have done exactly that.
Throughout the game the Fins chose to make shots that had very bad downsides. So long as they made shots, they did okay, but whenever they missed a couple, things went very badly. Canada stole a point in both the 3rd and 4th, for example. One of the keys to curling strategy is to attempt shots that have good results if you make them, but that aren’t disasters if you miss. Evidently the Fins didn’t get that memo, as they attempted some really ridiculously dangerous shots and didn’t pull them off.
That’s the part I have trouble explaining to people. “I saw Team X score five points in one end,” they’ll say. “So why did Team Y concede when they were five points behind with one end to go?”
Well yeah, you saw Team X scored 5, but only because their opponents were desperate to steal a point. If you go into an end where your only goal is to hold the opposition to less than 5, it’s easy as pie, and makes for very dull curling.
Exactly. Case in point being the 7th and 8th ends in this game when Gushue had the 10-3 lead. Heave the first two rocks though the house and then peel away.
That’s why we in the northern US prefer Canada’s coverage. 
Play virtual curling here (requires Flash): http://www.mousebreaker.com/games/virtualcurling/play.php
I’m jealous of Canada’s coverage :(.
So, Team Minnesota, uh, I mean Team USA took the bronze.
Bemidji must be rockin’ (heh) tonight.
Has anyone ever curled a better game than Mark Nichols did today? He shot an astounding 97%, making an incredible number of difficult freezes and doubles. Just an awesome performance,
Can I just say: Swedish Women’s Curling Team?
Babes.