Good Morning: Olympics turn household chore into surprising entertainment
Let’s face it, there are some strange sports out there (downhill cheese rolling comes to mind). If you own a television, you’ll have noticed these black sheep have rolled onto our most-prized sports stage: The Olympics.
Events like Nordic combined – coupling ski jumping and cross-country skiing – makes you wonder if those who dreamed it up spent too much time in high altitude. Then, there’s curling.
I couldn’t find a specific date when curling became the source of ridicule, the butt of jokes and the standardized definition for boring, but it was likely the day the sport was conceived. It’s the only event where sweeping your house could be considered training.
For those of you unfamiliar with curling, teams slide a "rock" down a sheet of ice, hoping it stops on a target painted on the ice. The sweeping comes into play after the rock is released – two teammates trying to control the direction and speed of the rock by melting the ice around it.
It’s shuffleboard on ice with the added element of sweeping, the only calorie-burning part of the sport.
I agreed with the curling critics. I never understood how something so un-sportish could be in the same category as something like downhill skiing where competitors rocket over jumps and around turns at highway speeds. Then curling came on my television while I was doing homework.
An hour later, I was standing up, screaming for the U.S. women’s team to block the German rocks out of the circle. I didn’t understand what had happened. I believed I’d been brainwashed, perhaps bored so much that my brain had shut off and I didn’t comprehend what I was watching.
But as Germany knocked both U.S. rocks out of the circle in one powerful slide, I realized it wasn’t a mind trick. I actually enjoyed curling and, more than that, I appreciated the sport. No there aren’t high speeds, high risks or any significant physical component, but there is a strategy component that creates some energy.
I’m torn as to what exactly curling should be, but I do believe it has a place. It has audience appeal. It won over a skeptic like myself, stealing my eyes from my homework and an hour from my day. But why? What’s different about curling?
It’s obscure. I enjoyed watching simply because it’s such an underdog in the sports world. It’s like the weakest puppy in a litter. It stole my heart because I was hoping it would overcome its challenge. I paid close attention to the announcers. I tried to get myself involved by guessing where the rocks would end up.
In short, I subconsciously worked to enjoy curling. You might just lose track of an hour of your day…and then have a sudden urge to sweep out a garage.
