Greetings from the Curling Tag

Greetings and Salutations!

I would first like to thank Jeremy for the invite to participate in this group blog. I think it is a great idea to get a wide variety of bloggers around the world to post about the 2006 Winter Olympics in real time (I am/was watching the opening ceremony as I typed this) .. and donating all proceeds generated by this blog back to the Athletes is fantastic! (I think that’s what we’re doing .. We’ll have to watch the sidebar)

I am HART .. from Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada, so I suppose I will be posting with a “Canadian” accent. No, that doesn’t mean I’ll be talking “aboot” curling or even “aboat” curling .. but instead I will be talking “about” curling! :P .. A few years back while I was travelling in California to see my relatives, and I met a nice gentleman in Santa Monica who immediately recognized that I was Canadian. I asked him how he could tell I was from Canada .. was I saying “Eh” alot?

He replied that he guessed I was Canadian from two clues ..

(1) I pronounced my “T”‘s … He heard me mention that I wanted to go down to the beach into the “Water” instead of “wadder” (claiming Americans usually pronounce “T”‘s as “D”‘s at times) and

(2) My licence plate on my car was from Manitoba … D’oh! .. (When all else fails, “eh?”)

Yup. Anyway …

Here are Some “Curling 101 At The Olympics” Facts

* There are 13 countries competing in both Men and Women’s curling

They are (in alphabetical order)

CAN – Canada
DEN – Denmark
FIN – Finland
GER – Germany
GBR – Great Britain
ITA – Italy
JPN – Japan
NOR – Norway
NZL – New Zealand
RUS – Russian Federation
SUI – Switzerland
SWE – Sweden
USA – United States

* Curling Events start February 13, 2006 at 9:00 am Local Torino time. In Central Standard Time (CST) That translates to 2:00 am February 13, 2006 and obviously in Eastern Standard Time (ET) it translates to 3:00 am February 13, 2006. The curling schedule posted on the olympic site is obviously the local time, and the CBC site is posting the times at ET. If you are following the NBC site, they are posting the schedules in local time.

* Team Canada’s Women team – “Team Kleibrink” – starts off February 13, 2006 at 2:00 pm local time (8:00 am ET) against Norway

* Team Canada’s Men team – “Team Gushue” – starts off February 13, 2006 at 7:00 pm local time (1:00 pm ET) against Germany

* According to the CBC.ca – Torino 2006 – The Olympic Games site … They are predicting for the Men’s Curling Final Results Medal Predictions

Gold – Canada
Silver – Sweden
Bronze – Norway

* According to the CBC.ca – Torino 2006 – The Olympic Games site … They are predicting for the Women’s Curling Final Result Medal Predictions

Gold – Canada
Silver – Sweden
Bronze – Switzerland

That’s it for now .. Enjoy the Olympics!