US Team Wins World Junior Curling Championships

Curling has long been popular in northern Europe, England, and Scotland. The first records of it go back to the 16th century. It first appeared in modern Olympics in 1924; that game was awarded medals retroactively during the 2006 Olympics. In the 1932 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, curling was played, but only as a demonstration. The World Curling Federation has its roots in Scotland as the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, named by Queen Victoria in 1843. It finally became an organized international sport in 1959, after two years of "consideration," and in 1968 was sanctioned by a large group of countries and renamed the World Curling Federation.

For those not familiar with curling, the game is played between two four-man rinks (or teams), wearing shoes rather than skates, trying to "throw" (slide) 8 rocks to the other team's side of a 15 foot wide, 138 foot long rectangle. There is an area at each end called the "house" which is essentially the target guarded by the team at that end of the ice. Throwing the 8 rocks makes an "end" which is rather like a period in hockey; in team play, there are usually 8 ends, which makes for a game that lasts about two hours. In competitions, such as the World Championships, there are 10 ends. A team receives one point of each of their rocks that are within the house and are closer to the center than any of the other team's rocks. The rocks have a handle, and it is the twist or rotation of the stone that comes from turning that handle that is a "curl" and the reason for the name of the game. For more specific information about curling terms and rules, look at the World Curling Federation website (http://www.worldcurling.org/ ), which also provides a very detailed history of the game. Rules and information about American teams can be found at the United States Curling Association website ( http://www.usacurl.org ).

In the history of the World Curling Federation Junior competitions, the US has only won three times, most recently in 1984. The win by the USA team on March 9, a team from the Duluth, MN, area, broke the losing streak when the four players defeated top-seeded Sweden 7 to 5. The US team includes Chris Plys from Duluth, the skip (similar to a team captain; he makes the strategy and usually throws the last two rocks), Aanders Brorson of Duluth, Matt Perushek of Eveleth, MN, and Matt Hamilton of Wisconsin. The US team had a five to two lead over Sweden by the third end; Sweden, led by skip Oskar Eriksson, pursued them, closing the gap to 5-4 after the seventh end, when Plys missed a chance to score a bunch and Sweden scored two points. The US rink scored two points in the eighth, bringing the final score to US 7, Sweden 5. Sweden hosted the Championship, held in Ostersund.

Currently the US is ranked second in the Men's Category, behind Canada and ahead of Scotland, Finland, and Norway. The US Women are ranked third, after first-ranked Canada and second-ranked Sweden, but ahead of Switzerland and Scotland.