Olympic curling: please don't let it be misunderstood

Team USA skip John Shuster delivers a stone in the 6th end Tuesday night as teammates Jeff Issacson (left) and John Benton (right) await his directions. Photo by John Kristoff

Next to the biathlon, curling is probably the most obscure sport at the Winter Olympics. But after watching the US men's team take on Norway Tuesday night, albeit in a losing effort, I've decided that watching it live is pretty sweet.

But before I go any further, here's how curling works in a nutshell. Each game has ten "ends," which are like innings in baseball. The goal is to have as many stones as close to the center of the circle at the end of each end. There are four players on each team, and each player throws the stone twice during each end.

Here are a few things I noticed in person.

• The players' yelling is not as harsh or noticeable as it is on TV. Because the players wear microphones, the German players yelling on TV sound like something out of "Hostel." In person it's not as bad.
  
• The venue atmosphere is something between a golf course gallery and a standard sporting event like basketball or football. It's never totally silent, but the crowd never gets really loud, either. There's constant murmuring and chatter.
  
• There are a up to four games happening at once. It kind of felt like a high school gym during a basketball tournament. When the US was trying to throw a stone, the crowd would be celebrating Canada's points against Germany and China was analyzing their strategy against France.
  
• For such a small Olympic venue (capacity 5,600) there are a ton of cameras, making it pretty easy to get on TV.