The Game with the Heavy Stone

This article has been published in the German magazine "aktiv dabei" by the sports society for the handicapped in North-Rhine Westphalia.

The IXth Paralympic Winter Games will be held from 10 to 19 March 2006 in Torino. This year for the first time wheelchair curling will be one of the five paralympic disciplines. However, Germany does not participate yet in this field.

16/02/2006

Wheelchair curling has only been officially played in Germany since 2003. The main difference to normal curling is that the players in the wheelchairs don't sweep so that the stone must be pushed very accurately.

Since 1998 the Swiss Curling federation and the wheelchair sports organisation offer a curling training program in different curling ice halls. After Swiss Championships and international competitions the first non-official world championship took place in Sursee near Luzern in Switzerland. This fast progress of the sport discipline, not only in Switzerland, but also in Denmark, Sweden, Scotland, France and Czech Republic, have shown that curling is also an attractive sport for para- and tetraplegics. Nowadays there are 16 nations who play wheelchair curling. Poland, Japan and Germany are new among them.

Today curling has developed to a competitive sport which especially in Canada attracted the media's attention, because there are more than a million active players and highly endowed tournaments. In Germany 800 people play curling making it smaller federations in German Sports Association. This will probably change in the future because the German teams participated very successfully in World- and European championships.

In 1998 curling was an official medal sport at the Olympic wintergames in Nagano as well as in Salt Lake City 2002. In Torino 2006 curling will be represented at the games just like in the years before.

The rules of the game: Two teams play against each other on an about 43 meters long, specially primed frozen surface, the "rink". Special stones are thrown in turns over the ice. The stone has a weight of maximal 19.96 kilograms, a diameter of 28 centimetres and is made of a very special granite called Blue Hone, which is known for its toughness and resiliency. The hand or a stick can be used to throw the stone. The wheelchair stands on a piece of carpet which prevents that it slides. On each end of the rink there is a kind of target with four rings, the "house”.

The game is played over five or six "ends”. One "end” is finished if all four players of the team have in turn thrown two stones toward the opposite house. The reason why there are houses on both sides of the rink is simple to explain. The backhaul of the stones to the beginning of the field can be avoided this way.

Finally, it counts which stones lie closest to the house's center, called "tee" or "dolly". The stone must be located between the hog- and backline, otherwise it will be taken out of the game. The team with the most points (= stones) wins the game.

- Further information about curling with animations around special moves and a curling encyclopaedia can be found at: www.curlingbasics.com