“I’ve said it a million times: Any time Canada and Denmark battle in women’s curling, you know you’re in for a special night.” – Bill Simmons a.k.a. “The Sports Guy”
I can still remember when I first read that tweet. My initial reaction was, what the eff is good about women’s curling? It was like having a thought bubble: “Curling? Hair? Did the Sports Guy turn into Sports Gay now?” Obviously, I had no idea that it was an Olympic sport (although it was obvious that it was since Canada and Denmark were battling on it…it’s just that I skimmed through it and just noticed the word ‘curling’). For those who do not know, curling is an Olympic team sport played on ice where players slid stones into a target area that has a bull’s eye on it. While the stone slides on the ice, curlers sweep the path in order to influence the speed and direction of the stone. Their aim is to have the most stones near the center of the target area after sliding eight stones in one end. Ends are like innings in baseball. There are ten ends in a game.
Curling actually became the craze in some countries during the recently concluded Winter Olympics. Unfortunately for me, I missed all the action because 1) I have no time to watch it…I am not the Sports Guy whose work is to turn on his TV; and 2) I was not yet that interested then. For some reason or another, I woke up one morning and I suddenly became curious about curling. I found out that the sport received a lot of buzz because of the following reasons:
1) There are some pretty curlers. The most famous of which would have to be Canada’s skip, Cheryl Bernard. She was actually nicknamed by The Sports Guy as The Curlgar.
2) It is actually a fun and intense sport which involves the players shouting a lot in the background.
3) It is something like Canada’s 2nd favorite sport so it had a lot of TV coverage as well.
4) Some women curlers posed nude in a calendar. Unfortunately, The Curlgar was not in there.
Just like what I do on everything I miss on TV, I decided to search for a torrent of a curling game. Last Saturday night, I watched the three-hour Olympic Gold Medal match between Canada and Sweden. Even if the file that I got had horrible quality (it was hanging every tenth of a second…I felt like I was watching a fast presentation of pictures), I got hooked with the game. It is a low scoring game like baseball. But since I appreciate low scoring sports like baseball, I loved watching curling. The fans were also intense especially when Cheryl Bernard takes the turn on sliding the stone. I actually knew the outcome (Canada losing as Cheryl Bernard choked big time in two ends) but I was so absorbed with the strategy and drama to the point that I actually wanted to cheer for a losing Canada team.
Curling is a good sport to watch. It is like combining chess’ tactics with bowling’s precision and baseball’s drama on every scoring opportunity. It is just that it is on ice and it looks better to watch women play it than men. That is what Bill Simmons stated in his podcast and I concur with that.
There are very few sports where it is better to see females than males. I am not being sexist here but let us face it – sports is mostly made for males. We see dominant masculine-related qualities in sports (whether it be on the athletes or the fans): competitiveness, athleticism, aggression, decisiveness, endurance and being mean without giving a damn about it. However, there are some exceptions because those sports sometimes require qualities that can be associated with females: finesse, elegance, poise and skirts. The Sports Guy mentioned these sports on his podcast but I am adding some that he missed:
1) Curling. This sport does not require any form of athleticism or endurance (for the sweepers, maybe). Heck, Team Canada even had a five-month pregnant woman playing for their team. It is more on precision. Furthermore, the release stance appears better for females.
2) Tennis. I grew up watching both male and female tennis. I know that men can easily overpower women in this sport. Athleticism and endurance is also very important in here. However, the red-blooded males who follow the sport love to watch the ladies because you see skirts and pretty faces. Precision is also needed in this sport. There is a reason why mixed doubles exist – women can somehow compete in this sport.
3) Badminton. See tennis but without the skirts. It is less popular anyway.
4) Soccer. I am not 100% sure why The Sports Guy stated that soccer is better for the ladies, but I can see his perspective on this. You can make the case for the red-blooded males’ hormones on soccer. I can still remember during high school when a lot of my high school mates stayed after classes to watch a female soccer game in our school (although we are in an exclusive boys’ school so students really scramble at the sight of females of our age then). Nevertheless, the reasoning was that they were waiting to rain. Go figure.
5) Volleyball. How can The Sports Guy miss this sport? Volleyball is the classic sports example for the females. Males still dominate females here because of athleticism but you would rather see the poise, elegance and finesse of female volleyball players. Remember the Leila Barros craze in the ‘90s?
6) Figure Skating. No brainer. I cringed a lot when I watched Blades of Glory.
I can still remember when I first read that tweet. My initial reaction was, what the eff is good about women’s curling? It was like having a thought bubble: “Curling? Hair? Did the Sports Guy turn into Sports Gay now?” Obviously, I had no idea that it was an Olympic sport (although it was obvious that it was since Canada and Denmark were battling on it…it’s just that I skimmed through it and just noticed the word ‘curling’). For those who do not know, curling is an Olympic team sport played on ice where players slid stones into a target area that has a bull’s eye on it. While the stone slides on the ice, curlers sweep the path in order to influence the speed and direction of the stone. Their aim is to have the most stones near the center of the target area after sliding eight stones in one end. Ends are like innings in baseball. There are ten ends in a game.
Curling actually became the craze in some countries during the recently concluded Winter Olympics. Unfortunately for me, I missed all the action because 1) I have no time to watch it…I am not the Sports Guy whose work is to turn on his TV; and 2) I was not yet that interested then. For some reason or another, I woke up one morning and I suddenly became curious about curling. I found out that the sport received a lot of buzz because of the following reasons:
1) There are some pretty curlers. The most famous of which would have to be Canada’s skip, Cheryl Bernard. She was actually nicknamed by The Sports Guy as The Curlgar.
2) It is actually a fun and intense sport which involves the players shouting a lot in the background.
3) It is something like Canada’s 2nd favorite sport so it had a lot of TV coverage as well.
4) Some women curlers posed nude in a calendar. Unfortunately, The Curlgar was not in there.
Just like what I do on everything I miss on TV, I decided to search for a torrent of a curling game. Last Saturday night, I watched the three-hour Olympic Gold Medal match between Canada and Sweden. Even if the file that I got had horrible quality (it was hanging every tenth of a second…I felt like I was watching a fast presentation of pictures), I got hooked with the game. It is a low scoring game like baseball. But since I appreciate low scoring sports like baseball, I loved watching curling. The fans were also intense especially when Cheryl Bernard takes the turn on sliding the stone. I actually knew the outcome (Canada losing as Cheryl Bernard choked big time in two ends) but I was so absorbed with the strategy and drama to the point that I actually wanted to cheer for a losing Canada team.
Curling is a good sport to watch. It is like combining chess’ tactics with bowling’s precision and baseball’s drama on every scoring opportunity. It is just that it is on ice and it looks better to watch women play it than men. That is what Bill Simmons stated in his podcast and I concur with that.
There are very few sports where it is better to see females than males. I am not being sexist here but let us face it – sports is mostly made for males. We see dominant masculine-related qualities in sports (whether it be on the athletes or the fans): competitiveness, athleticism, aggression, decisiveness, endurance and being mean without giving a damn about it. However, there are some exceptions because those sports sometimes require qualities that can be associated with females: finesse, elegance, poise and skirts. The Sports Guy mentioned these sports on his podcast but I am adding some that he missed:
1) Curling. This sport does not require any form of athleticism or endurance (for the sweepers, maybe). Heck, Team Canada even had a five-month pregnant woman playing for their team. It is more on precision. Furthermore, the release stance appears better for females.
2) Tennis. I grew up watching both male and female tennis. I know that men can easily overpower women in this sport. Athleticism and endurance is also very important in here. However, the red-blooded males who follow the sport love to watch the ladies because you see skirts and pretty faces. Precision is also needed in this sport. There is a reason why mixed doubles exist – women can somehow compete in this sport.
3) Badminton. See tennis but without the skirts. It is less popular anyway.
4) Soccer. I am not 100% sure why The Sports Guy stated that soccer is better for the ladies, but I can see his perspective on this. You can make the case for the red-blooded males’ hormones on soccer. I can still remember during high school when a lot of my high school mates stayed after classes to watch a female soccer game in our school (although we are in an exclusive boys’ school so students really scramble at the sight of females of our age then). Nevertheless, the reasoning was that they were waiting to rain. Go figure.
5) Volleyball. How can The Sports Guy miss this sport? Volleyball is the classic sports example for the females. Males still dominate females here because of athleticism but you would rather see the poise, elegance and finesse of female volleyball players. Remember the Leila Barros craze in the ‘90s?
6) Figure Skating. No brainer. I cringed a lot when I watched Blades of Glory.
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