World body takes steps to promote curling

World Curling president Beau Welling wants to sweep away the sport’s Olympics-only tag and slide into a new era where fans are engaging with it all year round.

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Curling, which originated in Scotland and is hugely popular in Canada, made its debut as an Olympic sport in 1924 at the inaugural Winter Games in Chamonix, France. It was not part of the official programme again until 1998 at the Nagano Games in Japan, which brought it to a worldwide audience.

The governing body’s membership has since risen to 77 associations from 28 in 1998, but while curling is becoming more popular outside traditional winter sports strongholds, it experiences peaks and troughs of interest in a pattern pegged to the Games.