The game of curling is more than 500 years old. The earliest written record of curling — of groups of people sliding stones on frozen ponds and lochs (an arm of the sea that is similar to a fjord) in competition — are found at Scotland’s Paisley Abbey and date back to 1541.
Curling for men was played at the first Olympic Winter Games at Chamonix, France, in 1924, but curling did not appear again as an official Olympic sport until the Nagano 1998 Winter Games with both men’s and women’s tournaments.
At the Olympic Winter Games, curling consists of two events: a women’s tournament and a men’s tournament. Each tournament starts with 10 curling teams. Two teams play against each other at a time. The game is played on ice, and the two teams take turns pushing circular stones weighing between 38 to 44 pounds towards a series of concentric rings or circles. The object is to get the stones as close to the centre of the rings as possible.
Once a stone is thrown sweepers use their broom to help the rock along the ice simultaneously. More sweeping reduces friction and removes debris allowing the stone to travel farther and with less rotation or curl. Sweeping can be a hard and fast motion or a light (clean) motion.
All Curling stones are made from granite quarries located in either Wales or Scotland. Each one may vary slightly in weight and other physical characteristics.
taken from:
http://winterolympicgames.suite101.com
http://www.vancouver2010.com
Both these shots are from the Gold Medal game at the 2006 Winter Olympics: Canada vs. Finland.
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