“You want to see a competitive team,” said [Canadian] team member Marc Kennedy, “you just gotta see us play cards against one another.”

If you are tempted to reply, “Yes, Marc, that would probably be more interesting than sitting through 90 minutes of curling,” that can only mean one thing: You’ve never seen curling in person.

Curling’s appeal for me is the brainy excitement and the ability of one well-placed stone to change the entire game in one second.  it requires deep thought and better control of where the stone goes.  Alas, still no curling in Richmond, Virginia where I live.  (For more on curling or the find a club near you, go to www.curlingrocks.org) 

The sweeping does more than just lightly melt the ice, it also removes tiny particles that slow down the stone.  As one of the Canadian team members told Murphy:

“The ice is pebbled,” explained James Prette, who was sitting behind me on Tuesday as the home team put the wood to China, 10-3. “When you sweep, you’re melting those little pebbles, which allows the stone to slide faster.”

And there’s hope for older folks like me:

“Curling is huge in this country,” says Prette, who lives in Vancouver but grew up in Saskatoon. “Especially in the prairie provinces. When you’re too old for hockey, you curl.”

I never took up hockey primarily because I wanted to live long enough to vote for Reagan!  But I am clearly too old for hockey in any event. 

My grandparents in Florida (they lived in Florida most of their lives not snow birds from the North) used to play shuffleboard and I was fascinated by that.  Curling has elements similar to shuffleboard but is better all around.  But I seldom got to play shuffleboard as a kid! 

I recommend the article in full.  I especially liked the explanation of the Canadian skip or captain, Kevin Martin:

Canada’s Kevin Martin is the skip of skips, his shot-making skills the stuff of legend, his talents as dazzling as the TV lights reflecting off his bald pate.

The first recorded curling match was chronicled (in Latin) in 1540 by a Scottish notary who wrote about a contest between two monks. Coincidentally, Martin, the best player of the 21st century, resembles a kind of monk… or emergency room doctor. Unassuming, modest, devoid of flash, the 43-year-old Martin is enormously popular in this country — largely because he is an almost perfect reflection of it.

“Oh jeez, no,” he replied, when informed that another coach had described him as curling’s Michael Jordan. “I don’t think of myself anywhere near that. We’re an amateur sport.”

According to Murphy, Martin’s teams have done very well in an amateur sport.  

I’ll defintely root for Canada today but only in curling!  May they own the podium.  But we’ll get you next time!

I have never picked up a curling broom in a real game because my hometown, Richmond, Virginia has no curling club.  Perhaps that may change!  But, try a curling match on MSNBC before the Olympics are over. 

For more information on curling, go to the USA Curling website:  http://www.curlingrocks.net/

I was especially impressed by the athlete from Peru’s story.  I know he has no realistic chance to win a medal, but I’ll root for him anyway!  Maybe he’ll have the run of a lifetime and win the gold!  Could happen!  I also plan to root for the Republic of Georgia after their tragic situation.  I also root for all the small countries who have no chance or who have never won a medal before.  Paraguay had never won a medal in any Olympic sport until 2004 in Athens when they won the silver in soccer.  (I went on a missions/eclipse trip to Paraguay and it is an interesting nation few get to go to!)  I also root for the three Baltic Republics (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia), occupied illegally in 1940 and thankfully never recognized as part of the USSR by our nation and finally independent at last!

In a new and potentially disturbing development, Canada is taking a decidedly unCanadian attitude toward this Olympics:  Own the Podium!

From the USA Today of January 29:

“Canada has an aggressive new attitude,” Stephen Colbert said on his Comedy Central TV show. “In contrast to their previous slogan: ‘Pardon, would it trouble you if we won a medal or two? It would? OK. Never mind!’ ”

Rarely in Olympic history has the host nation failed to win even one gold medal. Twice, the too-gracious host has been Canada — at the 1976 Summer Games in Montreal and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary.

That won’t happen again. “Own the Podium” is more than a battle cry. It is a $117 million Canadian (about $110 million U.S.) business plan that provides Canadian athletes in select sports with more coaching, enhanced training and paid travel — plus this ambitious goal: Place first in the total medal count.

Perhaps this is the wave of the future.  The larger countries will use their technological advantages to dominate the medal count and further shut out the smaller nations.  (One thing about the Winter Olympics is that smaller nations like Norway can do well.)  Hence my enduring interest in the opening ceremonies – the nations, their costumes, their flags etc.! 

In some ways this encourages a degree of cynicism.  I always figured during the Cold War days, the Soviet Union and its Eastern European allies would cheat their way to the podium while one of our athletes would be banned from the games for cold medicine!  I watched the famous ending of the USA-USSR basketball game in 1972 and shook my head in derision (I think they interrupted that game to show Taiwan being kicked out of the UN!) at how the ref put time back on the clock and the Soviets then won.      

Understand, I do want USA to do well!  BEAT CANADA!  But if some small nation that has never won or hardly wins a medal wants me to organize their curling team, I’ll take some lessons and read the rules and help them win a medal!  Ought to be a nice consulting fee out of it!  Just contact me through this blog entry! 

Remember, for more information about curling near you, contact USA Curling at this webpage.

For a curling club near you, go to USA Curling’s site. 

Another sport that swept the nation is fencing.  Here is the club in my hometown – Mechanicsville Fencing Academy.  Unlike curling, I have tried fencing on rare occasions.  The first three medals won in 2008 at Beijing were the sweep in the women’s sabre.  This was the greatest American sports moment since the Miracle on Ice in 1980.  I am sorry they did not end up on a cereal box!

Go to this site for a local fencing club neat you!