Home > What is Curling?

What is Curling? Over 500 years old, Curling is a winter sport played by over 2 million people in 33 countries around the world and has been an Olympic Sport since 1998.  It is a game of fitness and finesse, a combination of strategy and skill.  As a non-contact sport, curling is accessible to a wide range of players from youth to seniors, who can enjoy the game for its sense of competition and fair play. The Curling Rink The curling rink is about 44 metres long and about 5 metres wide.  The Game Teams are made up of four players. Starting in the Hack, each player in the team slides a 20kg granite stone down a sheet of ice and have it stop nearer the centre of a target (the "House") than your opponent’s stone. Stones are intentionally rotated slightly when delivered and will curve a foot or two ("curl") in the direction it is rotated. Two sweepers, as directed by the skip (the person in charge of the team), use brushes to sweep the ice in front of the curling stone so that the ice is smooth and the stone goes further and straighter.   A normal game lasts about two hours. Scoring An “end” is completed when all 16 stones (8 per team) have been delivered.  Only one team can score in an end with teams scoring one point for each stone closer to the centre of the House than the opponent's closest stone.