Originally published on 2/11/26

The 2026 Winter Olympics are well under way, and this year everyone’s talking about one thing: Curling. That’s right. This sport, which involves sweeping a stone onto a target, is taking the internet by storm, and we at Woman’s World are obsessed. Read on to learn everything you need to know about curling, from how it’s played to where they get the stones for this sport. 

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What is curling? 

Curling is an ice sport in which players—or “curlers”—slide,then sweep heavy granite stones down 150 feet of ice to a circular target called the “house,” which looks like a target. 

Men and women play in teams of four or  two, and during each end (or round) of curling, every team gets eight stones— in red or yellow—and it’s up to them to figure out how to move, sweep and aim each stone.

The team that has the most stones closest to the center of the house gets one point for each round. After eight or 10 rounds, the team with the most points wins. 

“Curling is a game of skill and of tradition,” reads the World Curling Organization’s website. “A shot well executed is a delight to see and it is also a fine thing to observe the time-honoured traditions of curling being applied in the true spirit of the game. Curlers play to win, but never to humble their opponents. A true curler never attempts to distract opponents, nor to prevent them from playing their best, and would prefer to lose rather than to win unfairly,”. 

“Curlers never knowingly break a rule of the game, nor disrespect any of its traditions. Should they become aware that this has been done inadvertently, they will be the first to divulge the breach. While the main object of the game of curling is to determine the relative skill of the players, The Spirit of Curling demands good sportsmanship, kindly feeling and honourable conduct. This spirit should influence both the interpretation and the application of the rules of the game and also the conduct of all participants on and off the ice,” the organization continues. 

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Where are curling stones made?

Curling stones are made from a special type of igneous granite. Each one weighs between 38 and 44 pounds.

“Every single Olympic curling stone comes from this little island off the coast of Scotland called Ailsa Craig. And no other stone curls like an Ailsa Craig stone,” Erika Brown, the former Team USA TK explained to Scientific American in 2014. “The layer of rock that runs along the ice doesn’t chip or absorb water, but most importantly, it’s very predictable on ice—you know what your shots are going to do. And the middle layer doesn’t break when the stones collide.”

Why is curling so popular right now? 

Curling has taken over social media for one simple reason: People think they can do itSports fans have even gone as far as to post videos of themselves practicing sweeping objects down long stretches of land to “practice.” 

“If I had two tips for a beginner, the first would be: Don’t run on the ice. You will fall over, and ice is hard,” former British olympian Eve Muirhead told The New York Times. “You [also] can’t curl on a skating or ice hockey rink. The stone wouldn’t go anywhere. So you put millions of tiny water droplets on the sheet to cause less friction between the ice and stone. The droplets freeze into what we call ‘pebble’— if you run your hand over the ice, it’s rough.”

Who is on the 2026 United States Olympic curling team? 

There are three United States Olympic curling teams: men’s, women’s and mixed doubles.. The curlers on each team are as followed: 

United States Olympic mixed doubles curling team

• Korey Dropkin, a 30-year-old from Southborough, Massachusetts. 
• Cory Thiesse, a 31-year-old from Duluth, Minnesota. 

United States Olympic men’s curling team

• Aidan Oldenburg, 24, Mapleton, Minnesota  (Lead thrower) 
• Ben Richardson, 27, Issaquah, Washington (Second thrower) 
• Luc Violette, 26, Lake Stevens, Washington (Vice-Skip/third thrower)
• Danny Casper, 24, Briarcliff Manor, New York (Skip/fourth thrower)
• Rich Ruohonen, 54,  Brooklyn Park, Minnesota (Alternate) 

United States Olympic women’s curling team

• Taylor Anderson-Heide, 30, Broomall, Pennsylvania (Lead thrower) 
• Tara Peterson, 34, Eagan, Minnesota (Second thrower) 
• Cory Thiesse, 31, Duluth, Minnesota (Vice-Skip/third thrower)
• Tabitha Peterson Lovick, 36, Eagan, Minnesota (Skip/fourth thrower) 
• Aileen Geving, 38, Duluth, Minnesota  (Alternate) 

Currently, only the mixed doubles team has competed, and got silver, making it the first time an American woman has medaled in the sport. 

“I’m still pretty speechless,” Thiesse told NBC News. “When Korey and I were walking out there I said, ‘Can you imagine at the beginning of the year if we said we were going to be silver medalists at the Olympic Games this year, we’d be pretty happy with that.’”

“It was a great game. Two really good teams, very back and forth,” she continued. “We just needed to be a little bit sharper than we were today, but we’re not going to let that game take away from the week that we had. We’re so proud of the way that we played this week and battled in that last game. They’re a great team [Sweden’s Isabella and Rasmus Wrana, who won first] and props to them. We’re very excited to be walking away with the silver medal, for sure.”

When is the next curling match? 

The men and women’s tournaments start on Wednesday February 11, and goes until February 21 and you can either it live or streaming later  on Peacock.

Link to original: https://www.womansworld.com/entertainment/news/what-is-curling-rules-stones-and-team-usa-schedule-explained