China curling skip Wang Fengchun’s sacking following his failure at the Vancouver Olympics was compounded by the fact he wore a U.S. team cap on the plane home.

The Chinese men finished eighth out of 10 teams in the opening round robin of last month’s Winter Games, failing to progress after losing seven and winning just two of their games.

Wang was not allowed to join in the celebratory banquet on the Olympic delegation’s return to Beijing, instead he was immediately dispatched to the railway station for the 12-hour train journey home to Harbin.

Full story: Sacked Chinese curler caps bad day with U.S. headgear | Sports | Reuters.

What Vancouver and Cortina d’Ampezzo have in common is Curling. That’s for sure. The picturesque resort town in the Dolomites is considered the Italian ‘cradle’ of curling, and next month it will host the 2010 Capital One World Men’s Curling Championship.
After the Winter Olympics in Canada, the ‘Lords of the Stones’ are ready to invade the Italian town for the absolute main curling event of the season. From Saturday April 3rd until the 11th, the Olympic Ice Stadium in Cortina will be dressed up to warmly welcome the best curlers from twelve nations, namely Italy, USA, China, Japan, Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Canada.
In Italy, the Canadian squad will definitely be the team to beat, after the Olympic gold medal won at home last week. In the Olympic tournament final against Norway, more than 5.000 people filled the seats of the Vancouver Olympic Centre and cheered on Kevin Martin’s team, after the last stone thrown by the Canadian skip made them all raise their hands and sing loud ‘O Canada’.
In April the North-American team will get to Cortina in pursuit of an historic double title – Olympics and Men’s Worlds – in the same year. In Curling history, no country has ever managed to reach this amazing target. However, Norway and all the other squads will do their best to prevent Canada from doing so.
After having successfully organized the 2009 World Mixed Doubles Championship, Italy and Cortina are ready to host Curling World Men’s for the first time in history. The OC led by Massimo Antonelli is working hard in order to make the world event perfect in all aspects.
The 2010 Capital One World Men’s Curling Championship opening ceremony will take place on Friday April 2nd at the Olympic Ice Stadium at 5.30pm. No details are available for the time being, even if a spectacular and exciting show is expected, where sport, tradition and local folklore will be mixed together in a surely magic event.
As well as being a top sporting event, the 2010 Capital One World Men’s Curling Championship in Italy also represents a great opportunity for everyone to visit Cortina and the majestic Dolomites, recently arisen to world natural heritage by Unesco.

Website: www.wmcc2010.it

Switzlerand’s veterans managed to overcome the young and talented team from Sweden with a 5-4 victory in the Bronze medal game. In a well played game that featured one of the best shots of the Olympics, Swiss fourth Ralph Stoeckli secured his country’s third medal in curling and skip Markus Eggler’s second – the first man to win two Olympic medals in Curling.

Both teams exchanged single points until Sweden scored two points in the fifth end when skip Niklas Edin made an open hit to remove a Swiss stone. Switzlerland tied the game in the sixth and Sweden had a chance to take a two point lead in the seventh but came up heavy on a draw by Edin. A miss that ended up being one of the turning points in the game.

The ninth end saw possibly one of the most spectacular shots of the Olympics. Switzerland was lying four with last rock advantage when it came time for Edin to throw his last stone to save his team from giving up a big score late in the game. Edin threw an absolute bullet and made a quadruple removing all four Swiss stones leaving an empty house. The Swiss could only blank the end and retain last rock into the tenth. “You just had to accept it.” Eggler said regarding Edin’s shot. “It was an amazing shot. But it was OK, because it was OK to go into the 10th end with the hammer.”

In the tenth, Edin had another pressure shot to save his team. He attempted to draw to one of Switzerland’s stones in the back of the four foot circle with his last shot but came up a little heavy leaving a draw for two and the win for Stoeckli. Switzerland had to hurry on their last shot to avoid forfeiting with little time left on their clock. Stoeckli released his final stone with only twenty-four seconds left. The shot looked a little heavy and the Swiss team could only hope for it to slow down enough to score the winning point. The rock slid into the rings, glanced off their own stone in the four foot and stopped in time for the win. A jubilant Stoeckli collapsed on to the ice and raised his hands in the air after the victorious shot. “I was lucky. I didn’t have too much time left, so I couldn’t think too much.” Stoeckli said. “I knew to take the same weight as before and it came out.”

After the game, a dejected Edin felt his team should have won the game. “It’s the worst feeling I’ve ever felt.” Edin remorsed. “This game we definitely could have won. I really can’t describe it. We should have had that Bronze medal.”

Eight years later, Canada’s Kevin Martin finally has redemption for his missed opportunity at Gold in 2002. The Canadian team dominated the competition during the Olympic tournament becoming the first team ever to go undefeated winning the second Gold medal for Canada and the fourth medal in total in men’s Curling. Sounding relieved after the game, Martin said “Finally, it took a long time. But the hard work was worth it.”

The game turned in the fourth and fifth ends when Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud missed draws on his final shots allowing Canada to steal one in each of those ends to take a three point lead. Kevin Martin’s team hasn’t lost a game in which they had a three point lead since September 20 of 2009 and they weren’t about let it happen in the Gold medal game.

Norway managed two points in the sixth end to close the score to 3-2. In the seventh end, Norway was lying three counters when Martin went to throw Canada’s penultimate shot of the end. He froze perfectly to one of Norway’s stones on the button making it very difficult for Ulsrud to remove it. Ulsrud’s attempt almost removed it far enough but left it scoring in the eight-foot circle allowing Martin to draw for two and a commanding 5-2 lead.

Canada forced Norway to one in the eighth to take hammer into the ninth end. Norway managed to have a good end and put pressure on Canada leaving Martin looking at two Norwegian counters with one buried on the button behind a guard. Martin’s final stone of the end gently tapped the Norway’s stone back far enough to score one and recapture a three point lead.

Canada played a perfect end in the tenth end. Martin released his final stone of the Olympics knowing he had it made and finally coming through to get the Gold medal he deeply desired and one that the rest of Canada had expected from him. “I can’t explain it.” A jubilant Kevin Martin remarked. “It’s an amazing feeling and I think it will get better and better as the day goes on.”

Canadian second Marc Kennedy who’s accuracy was a sensational 95% during the game was ecstatic afterward. “Unbelievable. Incredible experience. Sense of super excitement and relief. [I] get that sense of national pride today. [This] is the best thing to be a part of, words can’t explain it.”

Thomas Ulsrud was not expected to be in the Gold Medal game and exceeded most everyone’s expectations. His Norwegian team had won two straight bronze medals at the World Championships and everyone was anticipating another game between Kevin Martin and Great Britain’s David Murdoch to complete the trilogy. Norway took the next step up on the podium but are disappointed they did not achieve Gold. “If you give me 10 minutes then I’ll probably be happy with Silver.” Ulsrud said regarding their loss. “I’m a bit disappointed right now, but I think I will still be happy with Silver. An Olympic medal was our goal. When you are in the Final you always hope to win, but I think we’ll take it. We’ll take it as a great experience. We really enjoyed it.”

She is so smooth.

She is so skilled.

And to so many, Cheryl Bernard, the Canadian curling queen, is so, so sexy.

Yes, that kind of talk takes away from her exceptional talent — again on display Friday, although she and her team of curlers fell to Sweden 7-6 in an extra end in the gold-medal match — but much of the talk about Bernard during these Games has been inappropriate

Solomon: It’s not easy to make curling sexy | Olympics | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

Wall Street trading is often described as a blood sport. But inside the great investment houses, the sport of the moment is, of all things, curling — that oddball of the Olympics that is sort of like shuffleboard on ice.

This slow-poke game, which originated in 16th-century Scotland, has captivated the Type-A world of Wall Street almost by accident. CNBC, whose market chatter is the background music on trading floors, switches to curling from Vancouver shortly after the closing bell.

And so, after a day of braying for money in the markets, traders are winding down with curling. It is, fans say, a bit of after-market therapy. Curling is so slow and drawn out that it becomes mesmerizing.

Full story – On Wall Street, a Romance With the Curling Stone – NYTimes.com.

As the Canadian men’s curling team neared victory in the gold medal match against Norway on Saturday, the crowd in the Vancouver Olympic Centre stood and began singing “O, Canada.”

When Canadian skip Kevin Martin threw the last stone, ensuring a 6-3 victory and the gold, the Canadian players leaped into each other’s arms, women in the stands wept, and the Prime Minister cheered.

Curling is a strange sport, more housekeeping on ice than a true, death-defying, high-speed winter game, and yet it was curling that provided perhaps the quintessential Canadian moment near the end of the Vancouver Olympics.