Curling is one of the rare sports where you can drink and compete at a high level, but there’s still a line and this team crossed it.
Curling is the best winter sport. It’s the highlight of the Winter Olympics every four years, partially because the tournament, with men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles, lasts for almost the entire fortnight and is seemingly always on TV, no matter the time of day. It also produces some tremendous moments of drama, despite being otherwise leisurely viewing, as it so often comes down to the last stone and, at times, requires some heroics to decide the outcome of a match.
If you’ve ever been lucky enough to attend a curling event live, you know that one of the hallmarks of the event is everyone is drinking extremely large beers. It’s part of the fun of being in the curling crowd is getting a rich lather working while yelling at people sweeping ice and sliding stones around.
The participants, however, are not supposed to partake, at least in as gratuitous a fashion as the fans, because when they don’t they end up getting rowdy and breaking brooms and cussing all the time.
