O curling is a sport performed in ice rinks and formed by teams of two or four people, whose objective is throw stones as close to the target as possible.
Teams are made up of pitchers and sweepers. Sweepers follow the thrown stone with a broom, reducing the friction of the stone with the ice.
O curling is considered one of the oldest team sports in the world, it has been practiced since the 16th century on the frozen lakes of Scotland.
Despite being similar to bocce, the curling it's called ice chess, as it requires strategy and a lot of concentration from the participants.
Canada is the world's leading power in the sport. The country has 6 of the 14 gold medals already won in the Olympic Games.
How does the game work and what are the rules of curling?
O curling is played by teams that can be made up of four players of the same sex (4 women or 4 men) or pairs of mixed players (one woman and one man).
There is also the category of mixed teams (two women and two men), but this modality still does not participate in the Olympic Games.
The game consists of throwing a massive granite boulder towards a target, called a House. The objective is to have as many stones near this area.
The stone is thrown by one of the players, who cannot cross the threshold, called hog line. The sweepers (or sweeper) follow the stone until it approaches the target.
Sweepers rub their brooms in front of the rock to reduce friction with the track, which can increase the rock's speed and also change its trajectory.
Friction heats the ice until it reaches its melting point. A film of water is created between the stone and the track, which facilitates sliding.
Sweepers follow the stone until the end of its trajectory. At the end of each game, points are counted according to the proximity of the stones to the target.
The score in curling
the game of curling is composed of games called endsor finals, in Portuguese. Team games have 10 ends and pair games have 8 ends.
Points are counted at the end of each end and the team that has the stones closest to the target wins the points. The number of points corresponds to the number of nearest stones.
At the end of all ends, points are counted and the team with the highest score wins. If there is a tie, a end extra to define the winner.
Equipment and the track of the curling
- Stone: the stone is made of polished solid granite, weighs 17 to 20 kilos and has a circumference of 910 millimeters. It has a plastic rod on top.
- brooms: the handles of the brooms are made of carbon fiber and the brush can be made of synthetic fibers or animal hair.
- slide foot: shoe with a low, sliding sole to prevent ankle movement.
- Ice rink: the track is 5 meters wide and 45 meters long. Its temperature should be kept around -5º C.
- House: target where the stone must enter for the team to score points.
O curling began to be practiced in the 16th century
O curling is considered one of the oldest team sports in the world. It began to be practiced in the frozen lakes of Scotland in the 16th century.
men playing curling in 1909 in the province of Ontario, Canada.
In the 19th century, more precisely in 1838, rules for the sport were created and in 1924 he participated in the first Winter Olympic Games, in Chamonix, France.
O curling, however, only returned to the 1998 Winter Olympics, which were held in Nagano, Japan.
Currently the curling participates in the Winter Olympic Games in the category of teams, formed by four men or four women and also mixed doubles.
curling in Brazil
The first Brazilian team of curling was formed in 2009 by Brazilians who lived in Canada and practiced the sport.
Despite still being a little known sport in Brazil, since the creation of the first team, Brazil has participated in world championships and also held national championships.
vocabulary of curling
- takeout: stone thrown in order to remove an opponent's stone from its position;
- Hammer: advantage of playing the last stone of the end;
- hit and roll: hit a stone from the opposing team so that this stone hits another one;
- Raise: hit a team's own stone to place it closer to the target;
- Guard: throw a stone to form a barrier.