All About Curling

Olympic week is almost over already! Hope you've learned some new stuff. :)

Since the Olympics are being held in Canada this year, it would be a shame to not learn something about Curling! I've been especially curious about it considering that at least one of the NBC affiliates has been airing every Curling match this Olympics!

How does Curling work?

Short Answer:

Two teams of four people take turns sliding granite stones down an icy lane towards a target painted on the path. Points are scored when a team gets one or more of these stones closer to the target than the other team's stones. Not only can the initial thrower of the stone make it slide in an arched path, but the other team members can alter the path and speed of the stone by sweeping the ice around it.

Each team slides eight of these stones, and once both teams have thrown all of their stones, it marks the end of a match. A game consists of 8-10 matches. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Like boccie ball on ice. :)

The Details:

Terminology*:

1. Stone: A thick polished granite disc weighing between 38 and 44 pounds, with a handle on top.

2. Running Surface: The part of the stone that makes contact with the ice. It's a narrow (0.25-0.5") ring (5" in diameter) attached to the bottom of the stone.

3. Curling Broom/Brush: Brush used to sweep the ice in the path of the thrown stone. Modern ones are made of fabric, or hog- or horse-hair bristles.

4. Off Foot: Shoes that have a Teflon sole, so they slide along the ice.

5. Hack Foot/Gripper Shoe: A non-sliding shoe, typically with a rubbery surface over the entirety or portions of the sole.

6. Curling Sheet: The iced lane.

7. House: The target, consisting of three concentric circles. There is one target on each end of the curling sheet.

8. Backboard: The extreme ends of the curling sheet.

9. Centre Line: Line drawn along the center of the lane, which goes through the center of the house.

10. Tee Line: A line perpendicular to the centre line that also goes through the center of the house. Each tee line is 16-feet away from each backboard.

11. Button: The absolute center of the house, at the intersection of the centre and tee lines.

12. Hog Line: A line 37-feet away from and parallel to each backboard.

13. Hacks: Two fixed, rubber-lined holes by each backboard. They give the thrower something to push off of when throwing the stones.

14. Throw/Delivery: To slide the stone down the curling sheet.

15. Skip: Teammate who determines the weight, turn, and line of the stone and communicates it to the sweepers.

16. Weight: The velocity of the sliding stone.

17. Turn: The rotation of the sliding stone.

18. Line: The direction of the throw, not taking into account the turn.

19. Thrower: The teammate who throws the stone.

20. Sweeper: The teammate/s who brush the ice in the stone's path to change its trajectory.

21. Draw: A throw that's just intended to get the stone close to the house.

22. Take-Out: When a stone knocks an opponent's stone out of the house.

23. Guard/Block: When a team places a stone in the path of the house.

24. Tap: When a stone hits another stone.

25. Burning A Stone: An infraction that occurs when the stone is accidentally touched by the sweepers, either with their broom or a body part.

26. Hammer: The advantage of being the team to throw the "last stone", usually determined by either a coin toss or a "draw-to-the-button" throw-off.

27. End: When both teams have played all of their stones.

Gameplay:

1. The first thing to do before the stone is thrown is to clean the running surface, so nothing can accidentally alter the stone's path.

2. The thrower delivers the stone from the hack. Due to the thrower's preference, s/he can choose to release the stone at any point (even if the thrower is still sliding with it), and to turn it however many degrees s/he wants. The thrower must release the stone, however, before s/he reaches the hog line.

3. The skip tells the sweepers what to do; brushing the ice can either make the stone travel farther or change the stones turn. The skip typically yell the line to the sweepers, and the sweepers communicate the weight back to the skip. The skip can be a thrower, a sweeper, or just a watcher.

4. Any teammate (besides the thrower) can sweep their team's stone until it reaches the tee line. After that, only one teammate may sweep (usually the skip), and one of the members of the opposing team can sweep that stone, too.

5. Each player on both teams throws the stones twice until the End is achieved. The teams take turns throwing the stones.

6. After both teams have thrown all of their stones, the team with the stone closest to the button wins that End. That team gets a point for every stone of theirs in the house that is closer to the button than the closest stone from the opposing team. After 8-10 Ends, whoever has the most points win.

The women of Sweden won the Gold in Curling at the 2010 Olympics

It may sound simple, but it's actually a game of intense strategy. Just the sweeping alone requires all sorts of strategy: from when to start sweeping, to the position of the sweepers, to the pressure and speed of the sweeping, and on and on.

Hope I helped clear it up for anyone interested. I definitely want to try it out sometime!

*There are many more curling terms in the Glossary of Curling!

(source)

Why Is A Biathlon Skiing & Shooting?

Anyone else wonder how the biathlon came to include just cross-country skiing and precision target shooting? Does that seem a little random?

Luckily biathlon.net answers those questions for us! The gist:

- The biathlon evolved from hunting and winter warfare.

- Hunting on skis began in ancient Rome, Greece, and China, as early as 400 BC.

- There have been historical writings about warriors on skis dated to the early first century AD. By the 1800s, many skiing regiments were active in Europe and Asia.

- Norway began regular shooting and skiing competitions in 1776.

- Germany began a similar competition called Military Patrol in 1902.

- Military Patrol was a demonstration sport in a handful of Olympic games before being incorporated as an official Olympic winter sport, called "the Biathlon", in 1960 in Squaw Valley, CA, USA.

- Women's Biathlon premiered at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games.

- The skiing distances, targets, and penalties have changed throughout the years, and are different for each biathlon event.

Here are the rules for the 2010 Olympic individual men's biathlon event:

• Men cross-country ski 20 km (~12.5 miles) over 5 laps, with their guns on their backs.
• They have to shoot 5 targets in between each lap, for a total of 4 times. They take turns shooting from a prone (on their belly) position to a standing position from lap to lap. The targets are 50 m away, and the target is about the size of a golf ball for the prone position and a grapefruit for the standing position.
• For each missed target, a penalty of 1 minute is added to their skiing time.
• Whoever completes the biathlon in the shortest amount of time wins.

- In the 2010 Winter Games, there are 10 different biathlon events, including individual, relay, sprint, pursuit, and mass start for each men and women.

Alright, I suppose it makes more sense now! I can see how it really pushes athletes because they not only have to have speed and endurance to complete the cross-country skiing portion, but also the control and precision for the target shooting. Cool.

Norway's Tora Berger won the gold for the women's individual biathlon at the 2010 Olympics.

Women's Ski Jump

As we learned on Monday, there is no women's ski jumping event in the Olympics. How is that possible?

According to a July, 2009, NPR story, a British Columbia Supreme Court justice ruled that allowing a men's ski jump event but not a women's constitutes discrimination. Unfortunately, the Canadian courts don't make the decisions about Olympic events, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) does.

The IOC claims that gender has nothing to do with their decision not to include women's ski jump. They state that it's entirely technical. The NPR article says:

Those technical issues include the number of women ski jumping at an elite level and the number of countries competing in the sport. IOC officials have argued that too few women and countries compete to justify Olympic competition.

Apparently there aren't that many male ski jumpers either, but the sport is always included because of tradition (it is one of the oldest Winter Game sports).

Ironically, prior to the 2010 games, the world record holder for the ski jump was a woman! She's an American named Lindsey Van, and beat the record for any woman OR man. She even achieved that record on the exact same hill in Vancouver that the ski jump events are held on this year.

Olympians are still going to fight for the women's ski jump in the 2014 games, but we'll have to just wait and see.

Figure Skating vs. Ice Dancing

What's the difference between the Olympic sports of Pairs Figure Skating and Pairs Ice Dancing?

Well...

Pairs Figure Skating:

- It's inspired by singles skating, with "two skating as one".

- It became an Olympic Metal Sport in 1908.

- Couples can skate as far away from each other as they want, but their side-by-side skating should be in unison and in close proximity.

- Throw-jumps (where the man assists the lady in a jump) and side-by-side jumps (toe loops, salchows, lutzes, loops, flips, and axels) are incorporated.

- Lifts are categorized by the way the man initially lifts the lady over his head. They can include hip lifts, press lifts, axel lasso lifts, carry lifts, and twist lifts.

- Spins involve the two skaters holding each other while spinning around a common axis.

- The music may not contain sung lyrics.

- There are 2 components to the competition:

1. Short Program (skaters complete a list of required elements using their own choreography)

2. Long Program (skaters choose their own elements, each worth various point values, and perform them using their own choreography)

China's Xue & Hongbo, 2010 Olympic Gold Pairs Skating winners

Ice Dancing:

- It's inspired by ballroom dancing.

- It became an Olympic Metal Sport in 1976.

- Couples are not supposed to separate by more than 2 arm lengths.

- Throws and full jumps are not allowed. "Half" jumps are permitted.

- Lifts can be unique, but may not involve the man extending his hands above his head.

- Spins should be performed as a team, in a dance hold.

- The music may contain sung lyrics.

- There are 3 components to the competition:

1. Compulsory Dance (all the couples perform the same standard steps and holds)

2. Original Dance (skaters must perform to music with a designated tempo, but can choose their own choreography)

3. Free Dance (skaters choose their own tempos, themes, and choreography, but there are required elements such as step sequences, lifts, and spins)

Canada's Virtue & Moir, 2010 Olympic Gold Ice Dancing winners

Hope that helped clarify! :)

Bonus fact for Michigan fans:

A Detroiter [an illegal pair skating move] is performed by the man lifting the lady over his head, holding her parallel to the ice while he is in a two-foot spin. The hold is the most dangerous part of the spin because the man is supporting the lady only by her legs. This move is also performed in more dramatic and dangerous fashion with a one-handed hold.

(sources: Wikipedia, chinaview.cn, & cbc.ca)

Winter Olympic Events

It's Olympic Week here on Stuff I Just Learned!

We're starting off the series with some event trivia:

-- The 2010 Winter Olympics include 86 events within 15 different disciplines. (source)

-- Speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey, ski jumping, cross-country skiing, and Nordic combined (ski jumping & cross-country) have been competed at every Winter Olympics since the games began in 1924. (source)

-- Before 1924, figure skating and ice hockey were part of the Summer Olympics. (source)

-- The only Winter Game to be discontinued was Special Figures figure skating, which was a part of the 1908 Olympics. Special Figures involved tracing certain patterns on the ice with one skate. (source)

-- There have been a number of events that have been demonstrated (for entertainment) at various Winter Olympics, but have never been part of the official competition. These include:

a. Bandy (like field hockey on ice)

b. Ice Stock Sport (like curling with ice stocks instead of stones)

c. Military Patrol (the predecessor to the biathlon)

d. Ski Ballet (a choreographed routine of flips and jumps)

e. Dogsled Racing

f. Speed Skiing (skiing as quickly as possible - up to 125 mph! - on a straight slope)

g. Winter Pentathlon (cross-country skiing, shooting, downhill skiing, fencing, & horseback riding)

(source)

-- There were several events proposed to be a part of the 2010 Winter Games, but were turned down by the International Olympic Committee. These included:

a. Biathlon Mixed Relay

b. Mixed Doubles Curling

c. Team Alpine Skiing

d. Team Bobsled and Skeleton

e. Team Luge

f. Women's Ski Jumping (this was the most controversial, going all the way to the Supreme Court of British Columbia!)

(source)

-- One new event did get approved by the IOC and is premiering at the 2010 Winter Games: Ski-Cross. It's a four-skier race along a course with turns, banks, and jumps. (source)

Enjoy!