For only the fifth time in Olympic history curling will be an official event during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Curling made its debut in the 1924 winter games and then not again until the 1998 games followed by 2002 and then again in 2006. The qualification for the Vancouver Olympics is based on how teams performed during the 2007, 2008 and 2009 World Curling Championships. The top nine teams from the Championships will advance to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Canada does not have to qualify for this event as it is given an exemption in to the Vancouver Olympics under the “Host Country” rule.

For many years curling has been described as chess on ice, but replacing the rooks and pawns are stones and mini brooms used as the curlers weapons of choice. Curling was first discovered in 16th century Scotland, but only then did the UK win their first gold medal in the women’s event in 2002 during the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. This brought curling to a much higher stage in the UK.

The sheet of ice that curling takes place on is 44.5m in length and is marked so the competitors can play in both directions. The object of the game is have your stone or stones closest to the centre (or tee) of the house. The player who is curling the stone starts in a crouched position and pushes off a rubber foothold called a hack, the shooter must release the stone before he/she crosses a point called the hog line. Once the stone has been released two sweepers stay ahead of the stone and start brushing the ice at a very high rate to make the surface faster. When the sweepers stop, the stone can be positioned to finish up at a very precise point. The sweepers in fact are only aloud to sweep the ice between two lines called tee lines. The captain of a curling team is known as a ‘Skip’ and is the last competitor to throw the stone in an ‘End’ or round.

Here is an example of the three main curling shots played during a competitive event;

Draw: When the skip directs the team to deliver the stone to the house

Raise: When a curler attempts to bump another stone in to the house

Hit: When the curler try’s to knock the opponent’s stone out of the way

During the Vancouver Olympics, the curling competition will consist of two separate events: a men’s tournament and a women’s tournament. Each competition will start with ten teams, with two teams playing against each other during a match. There are ten ‘ends’ in one match and the team with the highest score at the end of the match wins. During the Vancouver Winter Olympics the curling tournaments will be played in a round robin format with each team playing each other once and the top four teams advancing to the semi-finals. From there, the two winning teams will play for the Gold medal and the two losing teams will square off for the bronze medal.

The venue for the curling tournament at the Vancouver Olympics is located near the beautiful and scenic Queen Elizabeth Park which includes some spectacular views of the local North Shore Mountains. The construction of the arena began in March of 2007 and was to be completed by the fall of 2008. The venue will have a spectator capacity of 6,000. Once the Vancouver Winter Olympics have finished the venue will serve the community as a recreation centre for curling, ice hockey and will include a gymnasium with a library attached to the complex. This will also include a brand new 50m leisure pool. The recreation centre will then be turned over to and operated by the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.

The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) invested $40 million in to the project with the city of Vancouver being responsible for the balance of the cost.

Here is a look at the sustainable attributes report for this venue as presented by VANOC:

Enjoy the curling tournament during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.