SOCHI - Curling

SOCHI, Russia | Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located on the Black Sea coast near the border between Georgia/Abkhazia and Russia.   The 22nd Winter Olympics, February 7-23, 2014, is moving along with teams from around the world competing.  One of the sports is Curling, a winter game.

Curling is a sport in which players slide stones across a sheet of ice towards a target area which is segmented into four concentric rings. It is related to bowls, boule and shuffleboard. Two teams, each of four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet towards the house, a circular target marked on the ice.  Each team has eight stones. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones. A game may consist of ten or eight ends.

The curler can induce a curved path by causing the stone to slowly turn as it slides, and the path of the rock may be further influenced by two sweepers with brooms who accompany it as it slides down the sheet, using the brooms to alter the state of the ice in front of the stone. A great deal of strategy and teamwork goes into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine how close to the desired result the stone will achieve. This gives curling its nickname of "chess on ice"

Curling was invented in medieval Scotland, with the first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541.

Today, the game is most firmly established in Canada, having been taken there by Scottish emigrants. The Royal Montreal Curling Club, the oldest established sports club still active in North America, as established in 1807. The first curling club in the United States was established in 1830, and the game was introduced to Switzerland and Sweden before the end of the 19th century, also by Scots. Today, curling is played all over Europe and has spread to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Korea.  Wikipedia

======================================

Curling Standings

    GAMES                                                       WINS      LOSSES

1	Canada	3	3	0
1	Switzerland	3	3	0
3	Japan	3	2	1
3	Sweden	3	2	1
3	China	3	2	1

======================================

Click - Medal standings - Overall Sports to date 

                        Gold        Silver       Bronze     Total

1 Germany 5 1 0 6 2 Norway 4 3 5 12 3 Canada 4 3 2 9 4 Netherlands 3 2 3 8 6 United States 2 1 4 7