Why You Should Love Olympic Curling – Bruce Explains

The opportunity to be an Olympic Gold Medalist will never come for most of us. In fact the best chance most of us will ever have at winning any kind of trophy or medal will occur at a school picnic or company outing. There are very few people that are born with the physical ability to become a world class athlete. Most of us are born with just enough ability to partake in sports on a recreational basis.

The sport of Curling is often maligned and joked about every time the Winter Olympic games come around. To the casual observer it is sliding a heavy rock on a piece of ice while two of your friends sweep the path ahead with brooms. While to many it doesn't sound like much of a sport, I believe it is.

Have you ever played washers at a tailgate party? Have you ever played ladder toss, ladder golf or ladder ball? Have you ever tossed horseshoes? Have you ever played paper football? To the casual observer these games look pretty darn stupid too. Include enough beer and an some competitive spirit and these games can end friendships.

I believe curling is a game that came from similar beginnings. There were probably a bunch of guys sitting around a frozen lake drinking beer. One guy suggested to the others that he could slide a rock across the pond and have it stop next to a tree stump. Pretty soon every body wanted to play.

Curling is so much more than sliding rocks on ice. There is a strategy and it gets pretty intense. The U.S. Team this year is kind of an underdog. I think they will come away from Russia with a medal. Last Olympics they had some bad luck, this year they will catch all the breaks and the world will be amazed.

Another reason to get on the curling bandwagon is that it is like bowling. After every match, the winner has to buy the loser a beer. Big fat guys can bowl and they can curl too. Curling is a sport of the common man or woman. While it's not as fast paced as downhill skiing or as elegant as figure skating, it is a sport that deserves the working man's respect.