February 16
Today, we have back-to-back curling events starting with women's curling at 9 AM. We were not sure what time to leave for the event and based our 7 AM departure time on how long it took us to make it through security at the sliding center, which seems to be about the same distance from where we are staying. We end up getting to the stadium so early that they haven't opened the doors when we arrive! But this gives Steve a chance to go into the Olympic store and buy a few more pins. In the meantime, Beth is having a nice conversation with a volunteer who is from Melbourne, Australia. Beth tells her that Australia is one of the few places in the world where we would be comfortable living if we had to leave California and that we would see her before the next curling session.
Today, we only have three matches: Sweden vs Switzerland, China vs Canada and Denmark vs Great Britain. The sheet closest to us is empty. The stands are also almost empty:
Sweden is currently leading in the preliminaries with a 4-0 record, while Switzerland is 3-1, Denmark is 3-2, China is 2-2, and Canada and Great Britain are both amazingly 1-3. They were expected to do much better! While we are waiting for things to start, Steve thinks that one of the Swiss coaches looks very familiar:
The woman in the middle is Mirajam Ott. She is a four-time Olympian (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014) and won silver medals in both Salt Lake City and Turino, becoming the first curler to win two medals. In 2006, we were staying in the town of Pinerolo, which was also the site of the curling stadium. In those days, it was not unusual to run into Olympians during dinner. One evening at dinner, we noticed that the Swiss team was having dinner at a nearby table. Sean (at Steve's urging) went over to give Mirajam an Olympic pin but was too scared to stay to get one in return. She laughed and waved Sean and Steve back over and gave us their team pin. She is now the assistant coach for the Swiss team.While both Canada and Great Britain are both 1-3, they immediately show that they are not going to go away easily. Great Britain gets out to a 2-0 lead in the first end and goes on to route Denmark 7-2. China was up 2-0 on Canada after 3 ends (like innings in baseball), but Canada gets 4 points in the 4th end and cruises from there to win 10-5. The only close game was Switzerland vs Sweden. The score was tied 3-3 after 5 ends, but Sweden scored 3 points in the last 5 ends and edges Switzerland 6-4 to stay undefeated. Here are some pictures from these matches:
We were not sure what was going to happen when the event ended at around noon. We really did not want to go all the way out of the venue and have to go back through security again. By the way, the security in Cortina is way more thorough than in Milano. They have checked the focal length of Steve's camera lens every day while no one in Milano ever gave it a thought. Steve kidded with the security guard that in Rio, he was allowed to bring in a 300 mm lens, then in PyeongChang a 200 mm lens was okay and now, it has to be less than 200 mm. At this rate, he'll only be able to use an iPhone in the next Olympics!
Fortunately, the organizers had considered the possibility of people having tickets to successive sessions and had a place where we could stand for the 30 minutes or so that it took for security to make sure that the venue was cleared before allowing the next group in. Unfortunately, there was no one in this group that was interested in trading pins.
When we are allowed back into the venue, we stop outside the arena for lunch and choose the hot Alpine sandwiches after to checking to see that they are composed of speck (a type of ham), mushrooms and cheese. They key feature is that they are warm!
Back inside, we get to see all of the things that they do to get the ice surfaces ready. First, this guy (who we think is the head ice official) comes out:
Curling ice surfaces have tiny bumps all over them called pebbles, so this guy is the pebbler! The key ability of this guy is to be able to shuffle backward across the ice surface at a more or less constant speed so that the density of pebbles is constant. After the pebbler comes a machine that looks like a hand-operated Zamboni. It has a blade in the front that chops off the tops of any pebbles that are above a certain height. Third comes a guy pulling a wooden rack consisting of all eight curling stones of one color. Honestly, we are not sure whether this is for the benefit of the stones or the ice. Finally, a guy comes with something like a large, wide floor mop that is designed to remove any ice residue left after the first three steps.
We should also mention the purpose of the pebbles. Some people compare curling to the Italian sport of bocce, in that you are trying to get as many of your stones as close to the target as possible. The difference is that you have 2-3 people who are changing the speed and direction of the stone while it is moving. This is where the pebbles come in. If you scrape the pebbles away in front of the stone, it will go faster and further than if you don't sweep. If you sweep to one side of the path, the stone will turn in that direction. In addition, if you try to throw a stone along a path that has already been heavily swept, then you will have a very difficult time getting it to curl (curve).
Our second session is a men's event featuring Norway vs Great Britain, Canada vs Czechia, Germany vs Sweden and China vs Italy. Going into today's matches, Canada is 4-1, Great Britain is 4-2, Norway and Italy are 3-2, Germany is 2-3, Sweden is 1-4 and China and Czechia are 0-5. It is really shocking that Sweden is 1-4 given that their skip, Niklas Edin, is one of the best curlers in the world and competing in his 5th Olympics. He already has gold, silver and bronze medals from his first four Olympics.
You may have heard that there has been controversy in curling. In the first match, the Swedish third, Oskar Eriksson and the Canadian third, Marc Kennedy got into a yelling match over the Canadians allegedly double touching their stones. This means that the person throwing the stone touches the stone again after letting go of the handle. If done with force, this can improve the trajectory of the stone. If lightly touched, it makes no difference (a curling stone weighs 42 lbs). In reality, the stone and the thrower are both sliding along the ice at nearly the same speed so that the time when the thrower's hand is close to the stone is long. The rules say that double touching is illegal and the person throwing the stone should call a penalty on himself and take the stone out of play. Edin had been concerned that curling was not self-regulating this problem and decided to make this point. In the end, calling it out seems to have taken Edin's focus away from actually playing the game which could explain Sweden's position near the bottom of the standings.
As it turned out, three of the four matches were blow-outs. Canada beat Czechia 8-2, China beat Italy 11-4 and Germany beat Edin and Sweden 7-3. All three losing teams conceded before the full 10 ends were completed leaving Norway and Great Britain alone on the ice. The game was down to the 10th end with the score tied 6-6 and Norway having the hammer (last throw - a huge advantage). The Great Britain skip, Bruce Mouat, did all he could to make it hard for the Norwegians to score, but the final throw from the Norwegian skip, Magnus Ramsfjell, was good for one point and a 7-6 win. Here are some pictures from these matches:
Walking back from the curling venue, Steve was starting to feel a little like he was back in Nagano where everyone wanted his autograph or photo. Today, two little kids bowed down in the "we are not worthy" pose after seeing all of pins on Steve's vest and hat. A good number of people also ask for pictures. It is really a weird situation for an introvert! At least a good number of people are getting into pins and want to trade.
We still had leftover pizza from the previous night so we had a quiet night at home and Steve worked on the blog. Tomorrow, we are back at curling for men's curling. Enjoy!
No comments:
Post a Comment