CURLING STONES TAKE CENTER ICE AT THE OLYMPICS

When the 2026 Winter Olympics open in Italy in February, nearly 3,000 athletes from 91 countries will be vying for medals, most in the various disciplines of the marquee sports of skiing, skating, snowboarding and bobsledding.

- BY STEVE VOYNICK

But there will also be 120 athletes from 13 countries competing in the lesser-known sport of curling—sliding 44-pound stones across 146 feet of ice toward 12-foot-diameter circles.

Curling was once a rather obscure pastime practiced only in a few cold-climate countries. But since its introduction as an Olympic medal sport in 1998, public interest in curling has grown steadily, with attention focused on the game's unusual skill-set and teamwork requirements, along with the curling stones themselves.

Previous Page: Mixed doubles curler Brendan Bottcher during Canadian Olympic Games trials.

Getty Images/Andrew Francis Wallace Above: Curling stones on the ice.

Adobe Stock/Ansis

FROM THE FROZEN LOCHS OF SCOTLAND

The oldest known curling stone is inscribed with the date 1511, and the earliest documented contest was held in 1541 between Scottish monks on a frozen loch. In 1565, Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel depicted curling scenes indicating that the sport had by then spread to the Low Countries.

The word “curling” itself dates to 1620 and refers to the slightly curved trajectory caused by the rotation of the sliding stone. And while the first Scottish curling clubs appeared in the 1700s, formal rules for the sport were not established until 1838.

Magnus Vaagberg of Norway, Markus Hoeiberg of Norway and Torger Nergaard of Norway in action at the men's Curling session 6 preliminary round match between Norway and Sweden during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Getty Images/DeFodi Images