Over the past week or so, curling has captivated the hearts
and minds of the nation as we watch stone after stone glide elegantly along the
ice, more often than not landing in its intended destination. But what is it
about this strange sport that makes it quite so enthralling?
Well
for one, it’s an Olympic sport we are actually quite good at. Both the men’s
and the women’s British teams have a
legitimate chance of claiming a medal and so they should, considering the sport
itself was invented in Scotland. It’s nice to see Britain succeeding at
something in an Olympics where we are normally just grateful to be there.
Perhaps the main reason for its appeal stems from its
relatability to the ordinary viewer. So perhaps relatability is the wrong word
– it isn’t every day we roll a heavy stone along the floor. However when you
consider the thought of launching yourself off of an enormous ski jump, or
hurtling down an ice-shoot on a glorified tea-tray, the thought of some overly
vigorous sweeping certainly seems a more realistic dream. At least you are less
likely to end the day in hospital.
You would think that watching men and women gently toss a
circular iron up and down ice for three hours would descend into mindless
tedium and yet there is something strangely captivating about it. There is a persistent
tension whilst watching, well aware that the tiniest mistake can have the
hugest of consequences. At the end of the day it is a sport which, like darts
and snooker, hangs on the tiniest of margins and a matter of millimeters can be
the difference between victory and defeat.
Then there is the actual tactics of the game. Luckily we are
blessed by the fact that the competitors are equipped with microphones so we
can hear every tactical decision. Not that it helps. Often we sit and question
the decision to play a guard way off line whilst the commentators applaud the
genius of the shot. We are then made to look the fools as the end progresses
and we discover that the shot we had so unequivocally questioned turns out to
be in exactly the right place. Nevertheless it is this tactical mystery that
adds to the curling attraction.
The fact that it stretches across the entire Olympics is
also a reason people become so attached. Many of the events at the Olympics, as
exhilarating and jaw-dropping as they are, are finished in a matter of hours.
Only this Sunday did I manage to miss the entire women’s snowboard cross
competition as the qualifiers, quarter-final, semi-final and final were all
completed before I had fully enjoyed my
Sunday lie-in. Yet with the curling it does not matter if you miss the odd game
because you know there will be another the next day. This format allows much
more of a connection with the team compared with, say, the snowboarding where
the athletes have come and gone in a flash.
And
what of our British team? Well over recent years we have become well accustomed
to seeing grit and determination from a Scotsman in the form of Wimbledon
Champion Andy Murray and these personality traits are evident throughout both
the men’s and women’s teams. The two skips in particular, David Murdoch and Eve
Muirhead bring such drive and determination that they deserve a medal for that
alone. Their steely grit is levelled out by the youthful exuberance of their
team mates such as Anna Sloan and Scott Andrews as both teams are full of warm
and likable athletes.
The romantic in me would love to see gold medals for both
teams followed by the explosion of curling throughout the UK with venues
popping up left right and centre. The realist tells me that both of these are
unlikely, although the chances of at least one medal are far from unrealistic.
The sad truth is that in a month’s time we will have forgotten about curling
again. It will have drifted out of our thoughts save for those few moments of
overly enthusiastic kitchen sweeping for another four years until it returns in
Pyeongchang. So enjoy it whilst you can because there really isn’t anything
else like it.
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