Saturday, March 20, 2010

March 13 & 14 - Curling :)

With the whirlwind of activities, school exams and lack of sleep, it's been hard for me to blog. But finally, I've gotten time to blog about my Vancouver 2010 Paralympic experience!

On March 13 and 14, several StudentsLive members attending the curling game at the Vancouver Paralympic Centre. I actually never knew that much about curling, but I had watched it on TV when the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games were on. I swear, TV does NOT give curling any justice what so ever. The major difference between curling live and on the TV just astound me.

First of all, I had no clue that when you watch curling live, there are actually 4 games occurring all at the same time. On March 13 , we had the honour to watch:

Korea vs. The United States of America
Great Britain vs. Canada
Sweden vs. Switzerland
Germany vs. Norway

I have to admit, it is very difficult to watch curling live because it's hard to focus on one game at a time. Sometimes you suddenly hear a roar of cheering and you have no clue what just happened because you were focusing on another game occurring on a different sheet.

Four games, going all at once!

At first , I was wondering how the curlers would sweep, as they are in a wheelchair. But once the game started, I figured out that in wheelchair curling, there are NO sweepers what so ever. Another cool fact is that when the release the stone, the wheelchair is steadied by another teammate (look at photo below).

Team Canada's Sonja Gaudet steadies Team Canada's Ina Forrest.

Wheelchair curling is actually a very new sport, as it made it's Paralympic debut in Torino 2006 Paralympic Winter Games. Teams consist of male and female curlers with varying impairments of the leg(s) or gait functionality.

The games on the 13th was truly intense, having Canada win 9-2 against Great Britain and a close tie with Switzerland and Sweden , with the final outcome of 7-6, giving Switzerland the win.

Jim Armstrong, looking very happy after a great victory!

On March 14th, we were able to watch:
Norway vs. Canada
Italy vs. Switzerland
The United States of America vs. Germany
Japan vs. Korea

With another 8 ends of non-stop action, it was Italy who had won a great 13-4 against Switzerland. But what I loved about that game was actually the Japan and Korean fans in the section across from us. They truly showed spirit and were defiantly fantastic supporters with their huge flags waving and the cheers in Japanese or Korean! :)

Capping the game off was Canada, coming through from the back and earning a 6-5 win against Norway. The Norwegians were fantastic, great sports and also had some cool pants , just like the Norwegian curlers in the Olympics!

CURLING WITH NORWAY = COOL PANTS.

All in all, I had a fantastic time at the two curling games and learned a lot :)

¸ -xoxo Lorie

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