Curling Too Rowdy

There is an interesting situation that has developed with the curling competition at the Olympics. The crowds have steadily been getting louder and more boisterous as the tournament has gone on.

In most sports, this wouldn't be a problem; it would actually be encouraged. However, curling normally isn't one of them. The etiquette of curling would have the crowd quiet down when one of the players is throwing their rock. Also, since communication is so important, the cheering is making it hard for the teams to communicate while sweeping.

I'm of two minds on this topic. On the one hand, the curling purist in me says the crowds need to quiet down. During the Canada vs Great Britain game last night, the crowd broke out into a loud rendition of O Canada. Normally awesome, but Canada's second actually had to wait for the singing to subside before he could deliver his rock. It wasn't a problem because Canada had a lot of time left on the clock, but if they hadn't managed their time so well, it would have put them in a real bind (each team gets a certain amount of time to make all of their shots; Great Britain had about a minute and a half left at the end of the game). If a team runs out of time on their clock, they lose the game.

But on the other hand, isn't it great to see so many people excited about curling? While curling remains popular in Canada, a lot of clubs are seeing a reduction in participation, not an increase. Why? The old guys are moving on and there aren't as many young people getting into the sport. The crowds at the Olympics are really pumped about the game, so if that excitement leads to new curlers as a result, that would be great.

Maybe at this level the players need to be given headsets to communicate with each other and then the crowds can make as much noise as they want. It would be a real shame to lose the absolutely electric atmosphere that has overtaken the curling venue, but we also don't want that atmosphere to cost anyone a game.