Winter Olympics: know the rules of curling –

In all editions of the Winter Olympic Games, one of the sports that attracts the most public attention is curling. Those who don’t know might think that the modality simply consists of throwing granite stones on an ice rink, in which athletes from each team use a broom to make the object slide faster and better. But it’s much more than that.

Whoever has the stones closest to a large target marked on the ground wins. It may seem simple, but it takes a lot of technique and strategy to win the match.

Curling has been played since the 16th century, but it is far from being a popular practice in Brazil. Although regulated by the Brazilian Ice Sports Confederation (CBDG), our athletes train in Canada, and we still don’t have a federated team to compete in the Olympics.

Even so, the sport was the most searched among winter sports on Google by Brazilians, from the 1st to the 8th of February 2018. The reason, of course, is the Olympics that take place in PyeongChang, South Korea.

Want to know more? See what’s behind the modality.

curling rules

Player Nina Roth of the United States curling team. (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

To play curling you need a lot of equipment. In addition to the granite stones – which weigh between 17 and 20 kg and are perfectly smooth – the teams also use brooms, used to increase the speed of objects on the ice and change their directions on the court. Specific shoes are essential, as they allow athletes to glide on the track.

Each team has eight stones, which are distinguished by the color of a handle at the top. In the Male and Female categories, matches are played by two teams with four players each; in the Mixed category, the teams have two players, one woman and one man.

In the team, there is the thrower, responsible for throwing the stone on the ice rink, and the sweepers, also known as sweepers, which change the path of objects.

Goals

The broom is able to change the direction of the boulder to get closer to the target. (Super Interesting/Playback)

The track is 45 meters long and 5 meters wide and is made of natural ice. The target, also called home, is marked with four rings, and the team that takes the stone as close to the center as possible wins. According to Revista Superinteressante, there are no suitable tracks in Brazil, as athletes end up dedicating themselves to the sport in countries that already have the structure.

Games are divided into 10 rounds (ends), in which each player on each team can throw two stones. after each end, the team’s points are added up, which vary according to the position of the stones on the target. At the end of the tenth round, whoever has the most points overall is the winner.

Casting forms and scoring

Sweden’s curling team, at the 2018 Winter Olympics. (Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

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There are a few ways to launch the stone on the track. You don’t need strength, as the object slides easily, but tactics at this stage of the game are fundamental. The best known strategies are:

Draw: simple throw, in which the stone goes in the direction of the target. Takeout: launch to take an opponent’s stone from the target. Guard: stone thrown to protect another, making a barrier.

After launch, the sweepers sweep the ice ahead of the rocks. The more force that is put on the broom, the more it can direct the object, increasing its speed or diverting its path.

The score depends on the position of each team’s stone on the target, as explained in the image below:

Some forms of scoring, according to the position of the stones on the target (Brazilian Ice Sports Confederation/Reproduction)