BY AL DAWMAN
Amidst the 20th anniversary of the 2002 Olympic games, the Weber County Sports Complex is announcing a curling event happening this month and next. Now, you can commemorate this year’s winter games by playing one on your own.
When people think of the 2002 winter games, they are unaware that the event of curling took place right here at the Weber County Sports Complex. Additionally, the only place Olympic curling has taken place in the United States has been at the Weber County Sports Complex. All Olympic curling events prior to this were strictly exhibition, and curling was only officially added to the medaled events in 1998. Even more interesting is that people are surprised to learn that Ogden has a social curling club that is carrying on this Olympic heritage. The Ogden Curling Club was created in 1998 in preparation of the 2002 games and is still operating under the same Olympic principles today.
Weber State University staff and University Advancement group, including Alumni Relations, Economic Development, and Marketing & Communications, recently participated in a staff curling event on December 9th that was organized by Helen Fink. That group had so much fun that the Director of Athletics, Tom Crompton, has scheduled a faculty curling event on January 5th for the Athletics Department.
The Ogden Curling Club would like to promote two Olympic Curling community events on February 2nd and March 2nd. They offer beginner classes and league play throughout the year to educate the Weber State community. The Ogden Curling Club meets at the Weber County Sports Complex on Sundays and Wednesdays year-round and would be a great on-campus activity to get involved with. The Weber County Sports Complex is home to the Ogden Mustangs, Weber State Ice Hockey –which are currently 1st in their national division– and figure skating at all levels. Currently, three local figure skaters have qualified at the national level. They competed during January in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Ogden Curling club is a non profit 501(c)(3) organization chartered to provide a safe and accepting learning environment and to enhance the local community by building relationships and collaborations through the sport of Olympic curling.
Curling 101
A game played on ice, especially in Scotland and Canada, in which large round flat stones are slid across the surface toward a mark. Members of a team use brooms to sweep the surface of the ice in the path of the stone to control its speed and direction.
Curling features two teams of four players sliding a large, granite stone on a rectangular sheet of ice. The goal is to deliver the stone from one side of the sheet to the circular scoring area on the other side, called the house. The closer to the center of the house, known as the button, the better.
