What is clear, however, is that what may have started as an enjoyable pastime of throwing stones over ice during a harsh Northern European winter, has evolved into a popular modern sport with its own world championships, which attract fans and large television audiences. Curling in its early days was played on frozen lochs and ponds.
When the weather permits, the game is still enjoyed outside in some countries, but all national and international competitive curling competitions now take place in indoor rinks with the condition and temperature of the ice carefully controlled.
The first recognised curling clubs were formed in Scotland, and during the 19th century the game was exported wherever Scots settled around the world in cold climates, most notably at that time in Canada, United States, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand.
In at Lake Placid, United States, curling again was listed but this time as a demonstration sport at the Olympic Winter Games. Another 25 years passed before a meeting was held in Edinburgh in to consider the formation of an international organisation which would be required in order to apply for Olympic medal status. Interest in other countries was generated, and the United States , Sweden , Norway, Switzerland both , France and Germany expanded the Scotch Cup entry. The success of the Scotch Cup series led to another attempt, in March , to create a global administration.
The following year, in March, , in Vancouver, Canada, a draft constitution for the International Curling Federation was considered by seven countries — France was added to the original six — and the Federation was declared to be established as of 1 April The constitution was approved in March , at Perth, and a set of rules for international competition was proposed. Eight teams for women and men participated in Nagano, and this was increased to ten from the Olympic Winter Games Salt Lake City onwards.
This included changes to the management structure. In one setup, they created a lane in which the ice was scratched in one direction and then, farther on, in the other direction.
Then they slid a stone down the lane and watched as it curled, first one way and then the other. He feels further vindicated by a controversy that broke out a couple of years ago: curlers were using new brooms that scratched the ice rather than merely warming it, enabling them to control the curl like never before.
Coverage by New Yorker writers of the Winter Olympics. Recently, Shegelski teamed up with Edward Lozowski, a physicist and atmospheric scientist at the University of Alberta, to reconsider the curling conundrum. Some years earlier, Lozowski had published papers on the science of bobsledding and speed skating. Together, the two men developed an improved explanation, which they unveiled in the latest issue of Cold Regions Science and Technology.
They call it the pivot-slide model. Lozowski, whom I spoke to over Skype, explained it to me by holding up a hair comb and running his finger slowly across the teeth. The same force will cause a circular saw, when it binds, to jump up and try to pivot around the obstacle. They emphasized that there is still a lot of research to be done—making models of the curling ice, quantifying the number of pebbles per unit area. By Christopher Heaney. At the Winter Games, in Pyeongchang, as at every modern Olympics since , a finicky science will shape the drama.
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