Curling fever hits U.S. fans
GANGNEUNG, South Korea — When Ann Chase and her husband were planning their trip to Pyeongchang for the Olympics, she set her sights on nabbing tickets to the most glamorous event of the Games: Figure skating. Her husband, however, had decidedly humbler ambitions.
“He was like, ‘ No, CURLING!’ And I was like, ‘ OK, that’s like a $40 nap,’ ” Chase, of Cambridge, Mass., said with a laugh before a recent curling match at the Gangneung Curling Centre. “But then you get excited about it, you start watching it on TV. And we were trying to learn the jargon and we’re like, ‘ OK, this is actually kind of cool!’ ”
Chase’s gradual warming toward the often confounding sport of curling mirrors that of many people in the United States. While their Canadian neighbors have long revered the game of roaring rocks and feverish sweeping, Americans have generally derided the sport as a bit dull.
But that’s changing. Since 2000, the number of U.S. curling clubs registered with the national organization USA Curling has nearly doubled, from 99 to 185. And while curling in the U.S. was once relegated to the upper midwest and small pockets of New England, it has expanded to many southern and western states. Even Hawaii has a curling club.
At Pyeongchang, Americans are embracing the sport for its chess-like strategy and oddball factor. There’s the fun of seeing what garishly colored pants the Norwegians will wear each day, the challenge of trying to anticipate the teams’ next moves, and — best of all — the curlers’ quirky personalities.
American curlers Matt and Becca Hamilton, siblings from Wisconsin, have been particularly popular with U.S. fans. On social media, tweets about the duo bear the hashtag #HamFam, and Matt’s mustache and red baseball cap have inspired plenty of memes likening him to the Nintendo character Mario. On the ice, they occasionally squabble like, well, siblings. It’s all very real — which is part of the appeal.
“You get to understand the players’ personalities because everybody’s mic’d up,” says Joe Polo, a member of the U.S. curling team. “You can definitely tell what Hammy’s all about; he’s a goofball out there, and all the other guys. I think that’s the biggest thing, people can really make a connection to the players.”
Hoefflin wins ski gold for Swiss
Switzerland’s Sarah Hoefflin is the Olympic champion in women’s slopestyle skiing. The 27-year-old put together an electric final run down the demanding course at Phoenix Snow Park on Saturday, posting a score of 91.20 to edge teammate Mathilde Gremaud for gold. Gremaud scored 88.00 on the first of her three runs in the finals but couldn’t top Hoefflin. Isabel Atkin of Great Britain took bronze with a score of 84.60 in her final run.
Red Stripe rescues Jamaicans
A beer company came to the rescue of Jamaica’s troubled women’s bobsled team by donating a sled, an official told AFP on Friday — the eve of their Olympic debut.
Jamaican brewer Red Stripe pitched in after coach Sandra Kiriasis left the team this week and was reportedly demanding payment for use of their existing sled.
The intervention means Jamaica’s women can make their fairytale debut in the Games, 30 years after Jamaica’s “Cool Runnings” men’s team competed at Calgary in 1988.
They will take part in their first official training heats on Saturday at the Olympic Sliding Centre, a 1,376m ice chute in the South Korean mountains.
South Korea spends on N.K.
How much was it worth to Seoul for hundreds of North Koreans to attend the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics? Try $2.5 million.
According to South Korea’s Unification Ministry, that’s the record amount the nation has allotted to pay the bills of more than 400 North Koreans at the Winter Games. Only 22 of those people were athletes.
The North’s performers — a 140member orchestra with vocalists and dancers, an all-female 229-member cheering squad and a demonstration taekwondo team — have been a major attraction at and around the games.