| Curling is a precision team sport similar to | | | | Outdoor curling was very popular in Scotland |
| bowls or bocce, played on a rectangular sheet | | | | between the sixteenth and the nineteenth |
| of prepared ice by two teams of four players | | | | centuries as the climate provided good ice |
| each, using heavy polished granite stones | | | | conditions every winter. |
| which they slide down the ice towards a | | | | |
| target area called the house. Points are | | | | Scotland is home to the international |
| scored for the number of stones that a team | | | | governing body for curling, the World Curling |
| has closer to the center of the target than | | | | Federation, Perth, which originated as a |
| the closest of the other team's stones. The | | | | committee of the Royal Caledonian Curling |
| level of precision and complex nature of the | | | | Club, the mother club of curling. |
| strategic thinking required to win has led | | | | |
| curling to be referred to as "chess on ice." | | | | Today the game is most firmly established in |
| | | | Canada, having been taken there by Scottish |
| Origins and history | | | | emigrants. The Royal Montreal Curling Club, |
| | | | the oldest active athletic club of any kind |
| Men Curling in Ontario in 1909The game is | | | | in North America, was established in 1807. |
| thought to be invented in late medieval | | | | The first curling club in the United States |
| Scotland, with the first written reference to | | | | began in 1832, and the game was introduced to |
| a contest using stones on ice coming from the | | | | Switzerland and Sweden before the end of the |
| records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrew, in | | | | nineteenth century, also by Scots. Today, |
| February, 1541. Two paintings (both dated | | | | curling is played all over Europe and has |
| 1565 ) by Pieter Brueghel the Elder depict | | | | spread to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and |
| Dutch peasants curling (Scotland and the Low | | | | even the People's Republic of China and |
| Countries had strong trading and cultural | | | | Korea. |
| links during this period, which is also | | | | |
| evident in the history of golf). | | | | The first world curling championship in the |
| | | | sport was limited to men and was known as the |
| The word curling first appears in print in | | | | "Scotch Cup" held in Falkirk and Edinburgh, |
| 1620 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and | | | | Scotland, in 1959. The first ever world title |
| the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson. The | | | | was won by the Canadian team from Regina, |
| game was (and still is, in Scotland) also | | | | Saskatchewan, skipped by Ernie Richardson. |
| known as "the roaring game" because of the | | | | (The skip is the team captain, see below.) |
| sound the stones make while traveling over | | | | |
| the pebble (droplets of water applied to the | | | | Curling has been an official sport in the |
| playing surface). The word derives from the | | | | Winter Olympic Games since the 1998 Winter |
| Scots language verb curr [2] which describes | | | | Olympics. In February 2006, the International |
| a low rumble (a cognate of the English | | | | Olympic Committee retroactively decided that |
| language verb purr). The word does not take | | | | the curling competition from the 1924 Winter |
| its name from the motion of the stones, which | | | | Olympics (originally called Semaine des |
| due to their deviation from a straight-line | | | | Sports d'Hiver or International Winter Sports |
| trajectory are said to curl. | | | | Week) would be considered official Olympic |
| | | | events and no longer be considered |
| In the early history of curling, the rocks | | | | demonstration events. Thus, the first Olympic |
| were simply flat-bottomed river stones which | | | | medals in curling, which at the time was |
| were sometimes notched or shaped; the thrower | | | | played outside, were awarded for the 1924 |
| had little control over the rock, and relied | | | | Winter Games with the gold medal won by Great |
| more on luck than skill to win, unlike | | | | Britain and Ireland, two silver medals by |
| today's reliance on skill and strategy. | | | | Sweden and the bronze by France. |
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