LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Curling is the only Winter Olympics sport airing every single day in the U.S. Curling clubs are trying to take advantage of that publicity, hoping that the Olympics will inspire newbies to fall in love with their sport. NPR's Anusha Mathur reports.
UNIDENTIFIED CURLER #1: Yep. Go hard. Go hard. Frosty.
ANUSHA MATHUR, BYLINE: It's chilly out on the ice at the Potomac Curling Club just outside Washington, D.C. Liz Tigner gracefully glides out onto the ice, setting a 40-pound granite stone in motion. With a subtle turn of the wrist, she adds a little spin, causing the stone to curl.
(SOUNDBITE OF STONE SLIDING)
MATHUR: Her teammates vigorously sweep the ice right in front of that moving rock.
(SOUNDBITE OF BRUSHES SWEEPING)
MATHUR: It helps the stone glide.
LIZ TIGNER: Yep, yep, yep. Sweep. (Laughter) Yep, yep, yep. Whoa. Whoa, whoa (laughter).
MATHUR: Each curl throw needs four people - one to release, two to sweep and one standing by the target to direct the plays.
MICHAEL EHRLICH: Sometimes when you're sweeping, like you just saw these two guys sweeping hard, it almost feels like you're willing the stone to go further. You know, like, come on, come on. You can do it.
MATHUR: That's Michael Ehrlich, president of the Chesapeake Curling Club. For him and most curlers, time is measured by the Winter Olympics.
STACY BISHOP: I've been curling - let's see - four Olympics, so almost 16 years.
MATHUR: That's league curler Stacy Bishop. Another teammate, Laura Yee, first watched Olympic curling as a high schooler.
LAURA YEE: You see this crazy thing. And it's just, like, rocks and sweeping. And you're like, I have to try that. There's no way that I cannot be doing that (laughter).
MATHUR: Curling officially became an Olympic sport in 1998. Luke Thomason said that the Potomac club experiences an influx of interest every four years.
LUKE THOMASON: If you were to graph out the number of people we have in the club, you will definitely see it follow the Olympic trend.
MATHUR: The Olympics actually keeps smaller clubs like Chesapeake in business, Ehrlich said. Cooling the ice and paying rent gets expensive. Chesapeake has run three times more learn-to-curl classes this year than they normally would in a non-Olympic year.
EHRLICH: Over 200 people - for us, a lot.
MATHUR: Kelli Warner (ph) paid out that $40 to learn to curl this year. She's already participating in beginner league nights.
KELLI WARNER: You know, it's always nervous when you start something new. But coming in here for the first time, everybody just welcomes you with open arms.
MATHUR: Curler Yana Willey had been trying to get her boyfriend to join her on the ice for several years. Watching this year's Olympics finally convinced him.
YANA WILLEY: And now he told me today he's got a shopping cart full of things for curling. He wants to be a member.
MATHUR: (Laughter).
WILLEY: He's like, I'm all in. Like, I'm sold.
MATHUR: And for all those new beginners, even if they lose a few rounds against more experienced curlers, Stacy Bishop says there's still a reward at the end.
BISHOP: The tradition, at least on the East Coast of the United States, is that the winning team buys the first round. So if you lose the game, at least you get a free drink.
MATHUR: That tradition is called broomstacking. It's one of the things that keeps people coming back. But without the Olympics, even some of the most diehard curlers might never have discovered the sport. Ehrlich says it's really the Winter Games that keeps local clubs in business.
UNIDENTIFIED CURLER #2: Good curling.
UNIDENTIFIED CURLER #3: Good curling.
UNIDENTIFIED CURLER #4: Good curling.
UNIDENTIFIED CURLER #5: Good curling, guys.
UNIDENTIFIED CURLER #6: Good curling.
UNIDENTIFIED CURLER #7: Good curling.
UNIDENTIFIED CURLER #8: Good curling.
MATHUR: Anusha Mathur, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIKE A STONE")
AUDIOSLAVE: (Singing) Like a stone. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
