Curling

I like throwing down gauntlets. So I am going to make a prediction:

The USA will not win a gold medal in curling.

Now, we are only through with the first session of this tournament, but I am going to make the call: the USA will, at the best, gain silver. And at the worst, well, how about no semi-final appearance.

Unimpressive performances by the women against Japan and the men against Germany are a few of the reasons why the USA side will not stand a chance.

However, here are some other reasons why the USA will not win a gold medal in curling:

1. Canadian Home Ice Advantage

This was a no-brainer.

The women have some spunk and competent throwers in Susan O'Connor, Carolyn Darbyshire, Cori Bartel and Kristie Moore, as well as an experience skip in Cheryl Bernard.  

Likewise, men's skip Kevin Martin is blessed with a plethora of talent in John Morris, Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert and Adam Enright. Mind you, they took out a Norwegian side, 7-6. And we all know how good the Norwegians are in curling.

2. The European Depth is too Strong

Aside from Norway, the Swedes, Danes, Germans, and Swiss haves sides that can get to the podium.

Sweden and Germany, in particular, have balanced men's and women's teams. Watch for Melanie Robillard on the German side. She possesses a keen instinct in taking out a guard stone on the opposing side and get the Deutsch out of trouble.

Sweden's women have years of curling experience under their belts. Led by skip Anette Norberg, the average age of this team is 37 years. As for the men, this is a young team that will be giving their Scandinavian rivals headaches. Each member of the team (with the exception of the alternate) is 24 years old, the alternate coming in at 18.

3. The Bloody Brits

Curling has its origins in 15th century Scotland. Great Britain is a curling powerhouse in spite of a number of the world's best teams hailing from elsewhere.

Nonetheless, the men and women, led by skips David Murdoch and Eve Muirhead, will be intent to bring a gold medal to its birthplace. Murdoch lost four years ago to Pete Fenson's USA side for the bronze four years ago in Turin, so you can be sure he wants revenge.

4. The Rise of Red China

They can skate. They can ski. They can do stunts and a whole lot more. But did you know they can curl?

Yes, China can do that too.

While the Chinese men's team, led by skip Liu Rui, isn't the best of the 10-team field, the women, led by skip Wang Bingyu, could be the biggest threat to Canadian home ice advantage.

Unless an act of God comes to sweep the competition away, the USA will not take curling gold at the Hillcrest Park's Vancouver Olympic Centre.

When you work from home, writing and operating e-commerce Web sites like I do, one day seems pretty much the same as another. There’s never really a day off and I not only don’t know what date it is, I frequently couldn’t even tell you the day of the week.

In a nutshell, the day to day grind leaves me in a bit of a rut and I need to find things to spice up my days. To break things up, I look for small things that will add a little change of pace—a bit of excitement to my otherwise monotonous routine.

Today is a day I have marked on my calendar as the penultimate routine buster. It is a day that comes around only once every four years. You see, my favorite event at the Winter Olympics begins today and I couldn’t be more excited. Today is the first day of the curling competition!

It sounds crazy, I know! When there are adrenaline-inducing events like the giant slalom, speed skating relays, or the now, death-defying luge, how in the world could I possibly get so worked up about a “sport” that involves one guy pushing an odd-looking orb down the ice while another scratches the ice’s surface with a strange brush-like thing, hoping to influence its path? Anyone asking such a ludicrous question has clearly never been married!

After having to suffer through more than my share of made for TV men-bashing shows on Lifetime—Television for Women, the inane cat fights on America’s Top Model, and, say it isn’t so, the pitiful plodding of the likes of Jerry Springer on Dancing with the Stars, it is my time to exact revenge.

When the Olympics are on, the rule of the house is that the TV stays on the Olympics; we need to support our country, after all!

A small, evil smile forms on my face when curling is announced as the next event. I can almost hear the shrill cry now. “Noooooo,” my wife will scream, “we are not watching that!”

I have done my preparation, though. I have made sure that the TV remote is securely implanted in my hand and have done one other incredibly evil deed—I have made sure that my wife's car keys have been inconveniently “misplaced.” A dash to the safety of the mall wouldn’t do at a time like this. No, this is my time; four years of wrongs must be corrected!

“You have to watch this honey,” I will say, “these guys are amazing!"

The look of exasperation, the way my wife’s eyes roll so far back into her head that I wonder if they can possibly return to their proper place, is priceless!

I will feign excitement for every properly pushed disk. I’ll jump, I’ll scream, I’ll throw things at the television. "Surely, this year’s performance will be deserving of an Oscar," I'll tell myself.

And, the best part is, this is only day one; curling will be televised for the next 13 days! You’ll have to do some channel surfing, though. This is why having a firm grip on the TV remote is so important. Check your local listings; curling is so popular, that multiple networks televise it. You can find it televised on USA, CNBC, and MSNBC. (It is inexplicably not covered on the mother-ship, NBC, for some reason.)

Watching curling is not for the faint-hearted—it’s not for those that enjoy sitting in a chair at the mall, telling their wife or girlfriend that she looks great in everything she tries on. No, curling is a true man’s sport; watching it takes steady resolve. Please don’t think yourselves malevolent, gentlemen; payback is a contestant on The Bachelor, after all!

Scotland is currently experiencing its worst “cold snap” in decades; temperatures in the Scottish Highlands reached a near-record of minus 22 degrees Celsius last week, and virtually the entire country is covered in snow and ice.

For periods when temperatures are as low as they have been recently, there is a tradition which originated in Scotland; it is called a Bonspiel, or a Grand Match.

When a lake freezes over, if the ice is a minimum of seven inches thick, a colossal event is held on the frozen water. Thousands of curlers, from all over the country, make their way to the lake for one enormous curling tournament.

It is an exceedingly rare opportunity—the chance to play on real ice, rather than indoor skating rinks.

This weekend should have seen the first Bonspiel since 1979 held at the Lake of Menteith; instead, it saw curling enthusiasts’ excitement crushed as local authorities and emergency services refused to endorse the event due to issues with the surrounding roads. Because of this, the event could not get insurance, and had to be cancelled.

The day before it was due to begin.

In recent times, Health and Safety laws have been becoming more and more ludicrous—this is but the latest episode. For example, a law was passed not too long ago which now forbids teachers to give out sweets to the school kids, on the premise that it will help combat obesity.

Uh...right.

The intention behind such laws is (one would hope) honourable, in the sense that they are supposed to be for the benefit of the people. However, if the relevant information is given, then the informed person ought to be free to make their own decisions.

This enforcement of things which ought to be left up to the individual is precisely what has given Britain the reputation of being a “nanny state.”

Understandably, curling fans were duly upset at the ruling. The outrage sparked an internet campaign to host their own and unofficial Bonspiel on the lake; a message was sent out on Facebook, and thousands of curlers turned up to celebrate the freezing over of the water themselves.

Curlers even arrived with their own floodlights for a midnight match on Friday night.

All of these people decided—for themselves—that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity was much too good to pass up, which is far more in the spirit of the original Bonspiels than anything the authorities could have deigned to permit.

Although it is now very possible there will never be another official Grand Match in Scotland—they’ve banned it once, and chances are they’ll do it again—the events of this weekend spawn hopes that the tradition will continue. With or without the blessing of those in charge.

Just as it should do.

The results of the recent Women's World Curling Championship provide lessons for NHL and international hockey, and for professional baseball, too.

For hockey, at the NHL level, the lesson is in one of goals. Curling has been quietly growing around the globe.  The World Curling Federation now has forty-four member countries.

Yet, with this growth there was never any attempt to becoming a "Big Four" sport in the United States, or to get a large American television contract. In fact, curling has grown despite American indifference. 

When was the last time curling was on American television?

Those governing the sport of curling realize that the sport's prosperity does not depend on the American market and, free from that obsession, it has enjoyed quiet, steady growth around the world.

Contrast that with the state of the NHL these days as it faces potential contraction or relocation. It has failed to get a rich American television contract while its "Big Four" salary structure is getting harder to maintain.

There was the failed strategy of expanding into markets where there was little previous contact with hockey, in an attempt to win a rich television contract while simultaneously ignoring "traditional" markets in Canada and the northern United States. 

This year, there are ten money-losing American markets, some facing precarious, uncertain futures. The NHL overreaches, while curling does not bite off more than it can chew.

At the international level, in my article "The Failure Of International Hockey", I outlined how hockey has failed to produce competitive teams outside the "Big Seven" countries—Canada, the United States, Finland, Sweden, Russia, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia.

Its world championship is filled with B-level teams from other countries who never challenge for the championship, but get the rare upset, only to be quickly eliminated, often with embarrassing and humiliating scores.

This year, the women's curling championship was won by an unexpected China team, while the traditional team-to-beat, Canada, did not even get a medal. 

This was not due to a slippage by the defending Canadian team, but rather occurred because of the improvement of the competition. No longer can Canada be guaranteed an automatic medal.

Perhaps it's unfair to compare the development of hockey and curling.  It may be much easier to develop a top curler than a hockey player.

But the fact remains, in the nearly 30 years since the 1972 Canada-USSR match, top hockey is still confined to the same group.  International hockey has not broadened its base. There has been little attempt to develop the game in the other B-level countries, especially at the children's and junior levels.

On the women's side, the result is even more miserable.  There are only two competitive teams—Canada and the United States.

Professional baseball can also learn from curling, and the lesson can be summed up in the word: respect.

The recent World Baseball Classic has made some headway iis garnering support by the American public. I have read some enlightened articles and comments on Bleacher Report and Yardbarker by Americans who are starting to question the "superiority" of American baseball.

But there is still too much arrogance and ignorance in the face of all evidence. In both the 2006 and 2009 WBCs, the American team failed to even make the finals. 

The most recent WBC saw five other teams come away with better records than the Americans.

Yet, Americans continue to insist their baseball is the best, and that Major League Baseball is, in fact, the "major league".

Instead of facing facts, Americans hide behind excuses like, "We didn't play our best players" and "We don't have anything to prove."

Some even claim that, "It was the wrong time of year" and "Nobody wants to get injured".

The tournament gets belittled.  Even U.S. players (i.e. Kevin Youkilis) are criticized.

In international hockey, a sport where players are more likely to get injured than baseball, most of the top players are eager to play for their country once their team gets eliminated from the NHL playoffs. 

No one belittles the World Championship as an "exhibition".

Similarly, in curling, the top teams from each country participate and no one belittles the tournament.

There is also the matter of MLB calling its championship the "World Series" even though only twice has a team from another country participated.

But the results from the World Baseball Classic are making American claims more and more hollow. Not all the best players play in the major leagues. The Americans have yet to win and there is plenty to prove. 

Baseball also has received a black eye internationally after being expelled from the Olympics, the first time that has happened to a sport since 1936. 

Curling, however, is still there.

If hockey and baseball want to grow internationally, they are going to have to change, and they've got the blueprint laid out by curling.

Without a doubt, the biggest news from the 2008 Ford Women's World Curling Championships was the play of Bingyu Wang and her Chinese team.

During the week in Vernon, British Columbia they beat the host Canadian team, led by Jennifer Jones, two out of three times.  China ended up losing the final, after beating Canada in the round robin, and the one versus two page playoff game.

Canadian fans found themselves asking "Who are these Chinese kids?"  Truth is, they are kids.  The average age of both women's and men's teams are less than 24.

Curling is a sport where experience is like gold.  Take Canada's Brad Gushue as an example.  When preparing for the Olympics, a fifth man is needed.  Gushue's team picked the legend Russ Howard.  This choice proved pivotal as the young squad hit a rough patch and Howard's cool head and experience helped lead them to a gold medal.

Fast forward to today and China's next big win.  This time it was the men's side.  Grand Forks, North Dakota is hosting the Men's World Curling Championships and with Winnipeg just a two-hour drive away, the crowd is pro-Canada. 

Imagine the shock when Fengchun Wang, China's skip, wins in an extra end.  China handed Kevin Martin and Canada their first loss in the round robin.  The difference with the men's team is that they have four loses (at this point) in the 11 game round robin while the women's team had only two loses out of the 11.

This year promises to be a turning point in the development of curling in China. 

Currently, there is only one dedicated curling rink in the entire country.  The six sheets rink in Huairou is a long trip from Harbin, where all of the players are raised, and is in finacial trouble.

Harbin is a city of 10 million people and will play host to the next Winter Universiade.  Already there are plans for two curling rinks to be built in Harbin but they are the smaller three sheet variety.

The strong finishes by both Chinese teams may indeed punch their tickets to the 2010 Winter Olympics.  This will be just the beginning as curling becomes popular in the worlds most populous country.  If only 0.1 percent of the 1.3 billion people take up the sport, it would pass Canada in participation and probably double the number of curlers in the world.