Will Curling Collapse Crush Claus's Chances?

Both men's and women's curling begin tonight with 16 of the 20 teams in action.

In the unlikely event that some readers don't know what curling is, here goes. The object is to slide a round, 40-lb. stone down a long strip of ice, and end up as close to a target as possible. There are four players per team. The skip calls the shots, the thrower slides the stone, and two sweepers sweep the ice with brushes after the stone is thrown to steer the stone on the ice.
There are ten "ends" in a match. A team scores points based on how many of its stones are closer to the target than its opponent's closest stone. As you might imagine, having the last throw in an end is a huge advantage, so the teams take turns going last.

As Wikipedia states, "The relaxed, turn-based progression of the game have led some to compare curling to chess and baseball." As an avid baseball fan I would have to agree with this comparison. Curling is exactly like baseball, with the only difference being that there's no pitching, hitting, fielding and baserunning, and there is sweeping sliding rocks on ice.

It's hard to overestimate the pressure facing the Canadians to win as favorites on home soil. Even silver on either side would disappoint a nation. Yet the pressure on Adam Claus is even greater, as he has a first round pick to justify and already more than 39 points to make up in the standings. The work begins today.

On the men's side, Canada (Adam Claus/Ice Lugers) is a heavy favorite for gold. Of course, this is far from a foregone conclusion. Canada won gold at Turin but was upset in the finals at both Nagano and Salt Lake City. The other top teams are Great Britain (Zach Chromiak/Banker's Club), Norway (Brittany B./Buck-Toothed Rabbit Bitches) and Sweden (Ellis Kunka/Cornballers). The USA (Tim Lavoie/Fightin' Ovechkins) has an outside shot as well with two curlers repping Duluth, Minnesota.

Canada is also favored in the women's competition, but the women's teams are more evenly matched. Canada didn't even make the final at Turin, settling for bronze. Since then, China (Brian Schwartz/Nordique Combined) has invested a lot of money in training for women's curling and while inexperienced, has a reputation for technical proficiency. They're favored for silver. Sweden,and Switzerland (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos) battled in the gold medal match at Turn and are still strong. Denmark (undrafted) and Britain have an outside shot.

The teams will play a round robin with each of the 10 matching up against every other team. The top four teams make the medal rounds, with the gold medal matches held February 26 (women's) and February 27 (men's).