Curling

The first curling club was founded in Kilsyth in 1716 and the Duddingston Curling Society was founded in Edinburgh in 1795. Curling is most popular in Canada today. Curling is also played in the rest of Europe and is becoming increasingly popular in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Curling is a team ice sport in which the aim is to slide a stone weighing around 20 kg down a track as close as possible to a target point. The game is played indoors on artificial ice or outdoors on natural ice. The stones have a circumference of up to 91 cm and are made of non-porous granite. They have a flattened tread with a hollow grind and a curved handle. Each team consists of 4 players, each player has 2 stones. This means that there are 8 stones on the track during one round. These are played alternately by the opposing teams. A team gets a point for each stone that is closer to the center of the target circle than the nearest stone of the opponents.

Sweeping the ice in front of a rock with a broom reduces its trajectory, at the same time slowing down the rock is weakened. It is the only way to influence the course of the stone.

The curlers wear special shoes during the game, the sole of one of these shoes has a smooth surface. This is used when the player pushes off the hack to play the stone. The other shoe has a thin layer of rubber on the sole, which improves grip on the ice.

In 1959 the first men's world championships were held in Falkirk and Edinburgh. The International Curling Federation (ICF) was founded in Vancouver in 1966 (it was renamed the World Curling Federation in 1991). There has only been a women's world championship since 1979. Curling has been an Olympic discipline since 1998.