Curling Strategy on Ice Explained
Precision is the key to curling. This winter sport, originating in Scotland, is the focus of this week's discussion. It's an unusual game in our territory, as for the brooms to glide properly, it must be played on an ice rink. It is mainly practiced in northern Europe and Canada, the northern United States, and also in Japan. At first glance, it bears a resemblance to golf, billiards, or even petanque, although in Latin America it is nicknamed chess on ice, alluding to the strategy behind each move, much like in chess—a notion perfectly captured by the phrase Curling Strategy on Ice.
Curling is a sport that can be played individually, against an opponent, in pairs, or in teams of four. Each player, known as a sweeper, must slide a 20 kg granite stone without pushing it. That is, they must move along the rink's 45.5-meter-long and 4.75-meter-wide ice corridor. The game begins when a member of each team throws the four stones onto the rink. At that point, the team must move each stone as close as possible to a target marked in the center. They must do so armed with their brooms (brushes or broomsticks), but without touching the stone.
A Brief History of Curling
That is, they must act solely on the ice surface. They may even vary the direction of the stone by sanding or rubbing their broom on the rink, because remember, they can never hit the stone. Thus, the stone closest to the center scores one point. If the next stone belongs to the same team, it counts two points if the next stone belongs to the team, it counts one point and one more point, respectively, unless the stone belongs to the opposing team.
Once the points for each team in that heat or set have been added up, the game is repeated, keeping in mind that the team that wins a heat is in charge of starting the next. A normal match consists of a total of between eight and ten heats. Irantzu García, the host of this issue of IN, occupies the podium in this sport at the national level, but she has also managed to transmit her passion for it to her entire family, especially to her brother Gontzal.
The game and its objectives
However, as it is a minority sport that does not allow for a living, Irantzu García was clear from the beginning that she would not have to put her studies aside. Therefore, she has always combined it with her education, and curling has not prevented her from earning a degree in medicine. This young woman from Biscay, who until last year lived in Vitoria, played her first tournament in September 2003 and won her first medal at the age of 14, winning bronze at the Spanish Women's Curling Championship. Her first gold in the Singles and Mixed categories came in 2008.
In the Mixed Doubles category, she has been a six-time Spanish champion, alongside her cousin Sergio Vez, and for the seventh time, in 2015, alongside her brother Gontzal. In total, Irantzu García has won more than 16 medals in national championships eight of them gold at the Spanish Women's, Mixed, and Mixed Doubles Curling Championships. At the international level, Irantzu made her debut in 2007 with Spain at the Junior European Championships in Tårnby, Denmark, and with the senior team the following year at the European Championships ,Sweden.
Rules and game
In 2014, she won a bronze medal at the Mixed Curling World Championship in Dumfries, Scotland, her best international finish to date. Also notable was her participation in the Mixed Doubles World Championship in Canada in April 2017. Her defeat, along with her brother, in the round of 16 prevented them from going to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Furthermore, Irantzu García is the first curling player to reach 100 caps, and in 2018, she became the first Spanish player to win a World Curling Tour title, after winning the DutchMasters Mixed Doubles championship in the Netherlands.
Without a doubt, this young woman from Biscay is, at 27 years old, a leading figure in curling, and, just as her parents wanted, she hasn't put her studies on the back burner. After studying medicine, she completed her residency at San Eloy Hospital in Barakaldo, which hasn't stopped her from continuing to build a solid career. Although it's true that this past season, her studies and COVID-19 have disrupted some of her plans.
Conclusion
However, Irantzu and Gontzal were unable to compete as a pair because the dates coincided. Two teams of four players compete against each other on the same rink, throwing eight granite stones per round. The main objective of the game is to throw the stones toward the house, landing them inside the house and as close as possible to the tee (the center of the bull's eye). At the end of each inning, the team with the stone closest to the tee (and inside the house) receives a point. They will also receive one more point for each stone that is closer to the tee than all of the other team's stones.
For each sport featured in the Winter Olympics, there are legends that exemplify the sport. In curling, the focus is often on the men and women furiously sweeping the ice with their brooms, but the soul of the sport lies in the mind. Two-time Olympic champion (Turin 2006 and Vancouver 2010) and three-time world champion Anette Norberg, legendary skip from Sweden, is a master of this sport, often considered "chess on ice, where angles, speed, and calculation are the keys to success. Retired from curling in 2014, Norberg overcame breast cancer, participated in a dance reality show, and is currently an insurance risk analyst. She also helps her daughter, Therese Westman, follow in her curling footsteps.
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