Is Curling really a Sport?

SkyDog58 said:
Doesn’t take much to shoot an animal at long distance with a high powered rifle. And there is no sport to it.
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I agree. But I don’t trophy hunt. I go grocery shopping. So I’m not really looking to have any sport. I want it all in my favor. Yummy.

I have never understood hunting just for a trophy but to each their own.
 
I don't know if curling is best played drunk. But I'm willing to bet that whomever invented was drunk.

I watched a bit at lunch the other day, it was on the bar TV. I think it was China vs Finland. It surprised me because I'd never heard of anyone under 60 playing the game, and both teams looked so damn serious. I wondered if the Fin team members have day jobs. Suspecting yes.
 
Curling seems a sport that someone missed the Olympics because their boss wouldn’t let them have the time off. :)
 
Albany Tom said:
I don't know if curling is best played drunk. But I'm willing to bet that whomever invented was drunk.

I watched a bit at lunch the other day, it was on the bar TV. I think it was China vs Finland. It surprised me because I'd never heard of anyone under 60 playing the game, and both teams looked so damn serious. I wondered if the Fin team members have day jobs. Suspecting yes.
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A vast majority of olympians have day jobs. The US curling team is local to me, I know one of them works for an insurance company and another is a structural engineer.
 
I don't know, this looks pretty sporting to me...




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Tarheelpilot said:
I agree. But I don’t trophy hunt. I go grocery shopping. So I’m not really looking to have any sport. I want it all in my favor. Yummy.

I have never understood hunting just for a trophy but to each their own.
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Same here. Killing merely for sport makes no sense and to me it is disgusting. When I did hunt which was years ago, I did so primarily for the meat. If I had been lucky enough to get a trophy while I was at it, that would have been bonus but it was never the goal. But I haven't hunted in 20 years and really don't have a desire to anymore.
 
For it to qualify as a sport, one has to sweat (from something besides the weather) and the outcome of the event must not be primarily subjective.

So if there are judges that subjectively decide the score, it's not a sport. All the freestyle, figure skating, gymnastics, etc, are not sports. Do they take athleticism? Yep. But not a sport. If you don't sweat it's not a sport. Golf is out as a sport, along with darts, curling, chess, poker, etc. Do they take skill? Yes. Are they a sport? No.
 
Mtns2Skies said:
A vast majority of olympians have day jobs. The US curling team is local to me, I know one of them works for an insurance company and another is a structural engineer.
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Somehow I can see both of those careers being complementary to curling.
 
EdFred said:
For it to qualify as a sport, one has to sweat (from something besides the weather) and the outcome of the event must not be primarily subjective.

So if there are judges that subjectively decide the score, it's not a sport. All the freestyle, figure skating, gymnastics, etc, are not sports. Do they take athleticism? Yep. But not a sport. If you don't sweat it's not a sport. Golf is out as a sport, along with darts, curling, chess, poker, etc. Do they take skill? Yes. Are they a sport? No.
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So is a boxing match that is decided by the judges rather than a KO not a sport?
 
SkyDog58 said:
So is a boxing match that is decided by the judges rather than a KO not a sport?
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Yeah. Athletic demonstration. Never liked the whole judges thing with boxing, or MMA, or anything. Especially when obvious paid off judge is obvious.

Now there are some rules that have to be followed like a knockdown automatically gets the round, point deductions etc that do make it less subjective, but yeah, I've watched more than a few boxing matches where it's been obvious there was payoff money - or the judges were visually impaired.
 
Hunting is for meat, and the hunter should use all the advantage available, just as those non hunters here go into the grocery store with way more than enough money for what they want. Credit cards are the most powerful tool at the store.
Deer are tender at 2 to 4 years old. The lead goose or duck is old and tough, the stragglers are either wounded, or young and tender. Turkeys with a very short beard are the best.

Trophies in hunting are losers. Too tough to eat, too much work to get out, and a waste of money to have them stuffed to prove you did get it.

Curling, on the other hand requires an amazing knowledge of impact vectors, exact energy content versus velocity, and precise feel for the thrust applied. Did I forget, precise application of rotation? And you have to impart all the plan to your team mates, who do the surface modification all the way to the final impact, or stop.

When I first saw curling, it seemed crazy, but as I tried to figure out how in the world they sent the stone on that curving path, and stopped right near the center of the bullseye, I realized it was complex science, and incredible skill.
 
EdFred said:
For it to qualify as a sport, one has to sweat (from something besides the weather) and the outcome of the event must not be primarily subjective.
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So the Olympic rifle events would have to count. Scoring is quantitative, there is no subjective judging, and to dampen pulse beats that would otherwise be visible in the sights, the shooters wear a layer or three of sweats underneath their leather shooting coats and pants. It's a sauna in that gear. Over the course of a multi-hour match, they lose a LOT of sweat. That's one of the reasons I switched from rifle to pistol...

Funny aside; I was at a shooting World Cup event in Rio a couple of decades ago. They had a bar on the grounds of the Brazilian Shooting Center. They had space available in a room off of the bar, so that is where doping control was set up. The list of performance-enhancing drugs for competitive shooters is rather different than for, say, powerlifters, but there is still a list. The top three finishers plus two more chosen at random were selected for drug tests. The rifle shooters would often arrive unable to provide a urine sample...so they'd be parked off to the side of the room and offered a beer so they could rehydrate enough for their drug test.
 
GaryM said:
So the Olympic rifle events would have to count. Scoring is quantitative, there is no subjective judging, and to dampen pulse beats that would otherwise be visible in the sights, the shooters wear a layer or three of sweats underneath their leather shooting coats and pants. It's a sauna in that gear. Over the course of a multi-hour match, they lose a LOT of sweat. That's one of the reasons I switched from rifle to pistol...
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That sounds a weather/dress thing. Sounds like I would sweat if dressed like that even if just walking or possibly sitting down.
 
Half Fast said:
Tennis, baseball, etc. are games.
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not sports :rofl:

Sport. /spôrt/ 1. an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment.

Sac Arrow said:
Skateboarding? I'm not sure what your frame of reference is, but from what I have seen it is an extremely athletic sport
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Damn right. Same with Snowboarding.
 
Curling is my all time favorite Winter sport. I was lucky to live in Watertown, NY for a short time, where the US curling team practice facility is located. It is a very technical sport and not tolerant of grabassery.

...And the Swedish women's team are uh, fun to watch!
 
Tarheelpilot said:
I want it all in my freezer.
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FIFY

Been awhile since I've hunted. But during some lean years we had, it kept my family fed.

EdFred said:
So if there are judges that subjectively decide the score, it's not a sport.
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Some football penalties are pretty subjective...

If hunting is a sport, why are the animals called "game"?
 
Dana said:
Some football penalties are pretty subjective...
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But you don't get more or less points if a touchdown is pretty or ugly or technically perfect.
 
Half Fast said:
“It was later confirmed the disqualified men had been consuming performance-enhancing Keystone Light.”

That’s just sick.
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Well, at least the curlers saved some money compared to Coors Light.

When I toured the brewery in Golden, it was obvious that the two beers are made in exactly the same production line. Can’t be much difference, if any at all.
 
My classification rule has always been: it's not a sport if you can drink beer while doing it.
 
EdFred said:
That sounds a weather/dress thing. Sounds like I would sweat if dressed like that even if just walking or possibly sitting down.
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It's not the first time I've heard it. A member of one of the local pistol clubs here used to shoot on the Army team. He switched over to pistol in part because the pistol guys, shooting in t-shirts and shorts at shoot in Puerto Rico were pointing out how uncomfortable his heavy leather shooting coat must be in the 85 degree temps. Rifle is a lot about equipment. Pistol is all in your head.
 
Half Fast said:
Tennis, baseball, etc. are games. Hunting? It depends. Lion hunting might be considered a sport. Dove hunting, not so much.
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I don't know about that. When I shot at (not simply shot) doves a number of decades ago killing one was an act of revenge.

Tarheelpilot said:
I agree. But I don’t trophy hunt. I go grocery shopping. So I’m not really looking to have any sport. I want it all in my favor. Yummy.

I have never understood hunting just for a trophy but to each their own.
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I like your viewpoint. If you like something, great. If you don't personally like something, but someone else does, leave them alone and let them have their fun.

GaryM said:
So the Olympic rifle events would have to count. Scoring is quantitative, there is no subjective judging, and to dampen pulse beats that would otherwise be visible in the sights, the shooters wear a layer or three of sweats underneath their leather shooting coats and pants. It's a sauna in that gear. Over the course of a multi-hour match, they lose a LOT of sweat. That's one of the reasons I switched from rifle to pistol...

Funny aside; I was at a shooting World Cup event in Rio a couple of decades ago. They had a bar on the grounds of the Brazilian Shooting Center. They had space available in a room off of the bar, so that is where doping control was set up. The list of performance-enhancing drugs for competitive shooters is rather different than for, say, powerlifters, but there is still a list. The top three finishers plus two more chosen at random were selected for drug tests. The rifle shooters would often arrive unable to provide a urine sample...so they'd be parked off to the side of the room and offered a beer so they could rehydrate enough for their drug test.
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Interesting. I shot on the WSU ROTC RIfle Team back in the early 1970s. We wore the leather shooting coats, among other things. Fortunately, all our shooting was indoors in air conditioned spaces, so getting overheated was not an issue for us. We also were not subject to random drug testing, so being dehydrated also was not a problem for us.

Albany Tom said:
It's not the first time I've heard it. A member of one of the local pistol clubs here used to shoot on the Army team. He switched over to pistol in part because the pistol guys, shooting in t-shirts and shorts at shoot in Puerto Rico were pointing out how uncomfortable his heavy leather shooting coat must be in the 85 degree temps. Rifle is a lot about equipment. Pistol is all in your head.
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Given the equipment that we had on our rifles (Winchester 52C and 52D) and the equipment we wore, I would not disagree with that final point. Good point. BTW, there was a girl I shot against in college who shot for what is now called Eastern Washington University. The best I did against her was to come within 10 points of her in a 3 position match. She had a bad day and I had a good day. How good was she? She took a Bronze at the 1984 Summer Olympics in LA. Yeah, Wanda Jewell was good. And she shot for the US Army Marksmanship Training Unit after graduation.
 
Shooting rifle matches in the heat isn't the worst part.

Shooting prone in the rain would be worse than offhand in the sun.
 
Bob Noel said:
Shooting rifle matches in the heat isn't the worst part.

Shooting prone in the rain would be worse than offhand in the sun.
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Agree about the rain, I shot a complete Army annual qualification in drizzling rain. I had to blow the water out of the peep sight of the M 1 Garand frequently, and steam was rising off the barrel during sustained fire. The temperature was T shirt, but uniform was fatigues, wool socks, and combat boots. The uniform du jour included steel pot and poncho.

The surprise was that I took high score for the unit I was in, and 3/4 of them qualified in good weather.

In better weather, our team took the Commanding General's permanent trophy, and I have a much smaller personal trophy.

In my 70's, it was much harder to beat the young whipper snappers, but I continued to win at least one event every year. My last wins were at 80, prone rim fire, 100 meters, and standing rimfire at 50 meters.
 
Half Fast said:
“It was later confirmed the disqualified men had been consuming performance-enhancing Keystone Light.”

That’s just sick.
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The testing or the Beer ?
Got to remember the Bee is a satire site , I love it. :)
 
one of my favorite commercials is the one where a guy runs into a bar exclaiming "it's raining beer!!!"
 
Dave Theisen said:
Curling seems a sport that someone missed the Olympics because their boss wouldn’t let them have the time off. :)
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A fun little sport anecdote. The US team played Britain in the 1950 World Cup semifinal in Brazil. The US team was hastily assembled, and included players who mostly had day jobs to support their families. And Benny McLaughlin Jr. couldn't go because his boss wouldn't give him time off work.

The British team consisted of some of the best players in the world. I recall hearing an announcer say that the professional British players would trounce the upstart American amateurs. Nonetheless, the US team beat them 1-0. It was a day of mourning in Great Britain, in the US no one knew or cared.
 
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