Obviously. My point was it's not a method I've seen used in any of the other winter games. Snow boarders are more casual.

I thought your point was that he was goofing off beforehand. Okay then.

and . . . boy, curling is boring to watch. and they're all so serious!

I bet they all have super clean floors in their homes

Olympic sock races!

A old friend of mine who is Canuck-raised, says that the brushing is just superstition and can't possibly have any effect.

it's hard what to imagine just exactly what it does. move the air currents? make the ice smoother? give the "athletes" something to do?

read the part under Sweeping

I don't know how tough the brooms' bristles are, but I imagine they could scrape up little piles of ice shavings in the path of the stone, or remove any piles remaining from earlier.

Like figure skaters in a way, I believe they time things with the music.
Don't tell mom :)

Talking about all this stuff reminds me of the time I went to the ski jump in Innsbruck. Bergisel ski jump in Innsbruck is open year round for training. You don't need snow to use it. They have a slippery plastic on the jump itself, and the landing area is covered in a very long stranded astroturf style carpet. Every once in a while, sprinklers turn on and wet it down, just like the produce section of the grocery store. Speaking of food, there's a cafe at the top with spectacular views of the valley and of the jump itself. You can see the athletes up close as they go through their training runs.

There's a little elevator/train car that takes you to the top, and the public rides the same elevator as the athletes. Kind of neat. It's probably limited access during actual competitions. Then outside the cafe there's a little observation platform where you can watch the guys getting ready to jump.


A running joke at this place is the grave yard just beyond the landing area. If you land wrong, they say you will end up in the graveyard. But it's actually about half a kilometer away.

people are craaaaaaaazzzzzy!

.

holy fuck

What the crap? No. That's just a thing that glatt made up.