The Winter Olympics were recently held. This competition includes curling. Curling is a team sport in which teams compete to place a stone into a marked area as accurately as possible. It may not look like it, but the sport has a very long history. Curling was first played in what is now Scotland. The first official rules were drawn up in the early 18th century; Pieter Bruegel the Elder\’s 1565 painting Hunters in the Snow depicts curling players.

Curling spread to Europe in the 19th century and eventually to North America and New Zealand. Spectators were able to see curling at the 1924 Winter Olympics, but at the time it was a demonstration sport; it was also a demonstration sport at the 1932, 1988, and 1992 Olympics. It was not until the 1998 Nagano Games that it began to emerge as a full-fledged sport. Top curling athletes include those from Scandinavia and the Alps, as well as athletes from Canada, the United States, and Great Britain.

Know the rules

The course is 42.5 meters long and at least 4.27 meters wide. The stones are made of granite. It is disk-shaped. Special shoes are very important for curling athletes. These have a non-slip sole on one side of the shoe. An important tool is the curling broom. With this broom, the players sweep the ice in front of the moving stones. Sweeping cleans and warms the ice. This slows down the sliding of the stones and increases the run and turn distance.

Two teams of four play against each other. There are eight or ten rounds (ends) in a match. In each round, the goal is to place and keep as many of your team\’s stones as possible in the center of the target circle. So-called stone throwing is very important. A total of 16 stones are used in the game, eight on each side.
The sport is relatively young in the Czech Republic. There are only two professional playing fields, one in Rozuptilie and the other in Zubraslav. Competition is divided into three levels (extra-liga, first league, and division),
and the competition is divided into two levels.