Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called rocks, across the ice curling sheet toward the house, a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a game; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each end, which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones once. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.
A bonspiel is a curling tournament, consisting of several games, often held on a weekend. Until the 20th century most bonspiels were held outdoors, on a frozen freshwater loch. Today almost all bonspiels are held indoors on specially prepared artificial ice.
The World Junior Curling Championships are an annual curling bonspiel featuring the world's best curlers who are 21 years old or younger. The competitions for both men and women occur at the same venue. The men's tournament has occurred since 1975 and the women's since 1988. Since curling became an Olympic sport in 1998, the World Junior Curling Championship of the year preceding the Olympic Games have been held at the site of the curling tournament for the upcoming Games.
The Grand National Curling Club (GNCC), founded in 1867, was the first National Curling Organization encompassing the entire United States. It remained the national organization until it created the United States Curling Association (USCA) in the 1950s, which split the GNCC into 10 Regions to compete in a U.S. Men's National Curling Championship. The champion would represent the United States in the newly created Men's World Curling Championships.
The Bemidji Curling Club is a curling club located in the city of Bemidji, Minnesota. It is notable for its long line of champions in many competitions, including men's and women's rinks which represented the United States in the 2005 World Curling Championship and the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. Pete Fenson skipped the men's rink, which won the Olympic bronze medal, the first-ever medal in curling for the U.S. Cassandra Johnson skipped the women's rink, which lost to Sweden in the final match of the 2005 World Women's Curling Championship. Another of the club's members, Scott Baird, played as an alternate on the Olympic men's rink.
The San Francisco Bay Area Curling Club (SFBACC) is a non-profit corporation serving the needs for the play and development of the sport of curling in the San Francisco Bay Area and its surrounding outskirts. Headquartered in Oakland, California, it is the largest curling club in California as well as in the Mountain Pacific Curling Association.
The Curlers Corner Autumn Gold Curling Classic is an annual women's World Curling Tour event held at the Calgary Curling Club in Calgary, Alberta. It was the first Grand Slam event of the season from 2006 to 2014, but is no longer considered one of the official Grand Slams.
College Curling USA is the governing body of collegiate Curling in the US. The organization acts as the NCAA does in other college sports — setting game play, eligibility, and organizational rules. College Curling USA is affiliated with United States Curling Association (USCA), the organization responsible for organizing Olympic teams.
The University of Nebraska Curling Club is the collegiate curling team that represents the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. They are an officially recognized organization on the campus in Lincoln, and are affiliated with the Aksarben Curling Association. Their home arena is Baxter Arena in Omaha, Nebraska. The team, founded in late 2007, practices at the Breslow Ice Hockey Center near main campus. They are coached by Nancy Myers and led by president Olivia Schuster and vice president Seamus Hurley.
The United States Curling Association is the national governing body of the sport of curling in the United States. The goal of the USCA is to grow the sport of curling in the United States and win medals in competitions both domestic and abroad. Curling's recent popularity has swelled the USCA to 185 curling clubs and approximately 23,500 curlers in the United States. The United States Olympic men's curling teams have seen success in recent years, most notably winning the gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, led by skip John Shuster.
The Pittsburgh Curling Club is a curling club located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The PghCC was founded in 2002 with 12 members, and as of 2020 has over 100 members.
The United States sent a delegation to compete at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A total of 50 U.S. competitors took part in all five sports. The American delegation included five former members of the U.S. military, including a veteran of the Iraq War and a veteran of the War in Afghanistan.
The Potomac Curling Club is a curling club started in 1961 and currently curling in Laurel, Maryland. Operating out of the National Capital Curling Center, a dedicated curling ice facility at The Gardens Ice House operated under a long-term lease since 2002, the group maintains four sheets of dedicated curling ice, the only dedicated curling ice in the Washington, D.C., area. The club operates during the main curling season, although social events for the membership occur during the summer.
The Karuizawa International Curling Championships is a curling bonspiel held annually since the Olympic Games in Nagano at the SCAP Karuizawa Arena in Kariuzawa, Japan. The bonspiel is held to commemorate the curling event at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, the first official curling event in the Olympic programme since the 1924 Winter Olympics. It is also held to help promote curling throughout Japan. The event became a World Curling Tour event in 2014.
Cory Thiesse is an American curler from Duluth, Minnesota. She is currently the defending U.S. champion skip, and represented her country at the 2022 World Women's Curling Championship. Christensen was one of the top junior women's curlers in the United States, playing in six national junior championships and winning four of them. She was the alternate on Nina Roth's 2018 United States Olympic team.
The Madison Curling Club (MCC) is a curling club located in McFarland, Wisconsin, United States. MCC was the third-largest curling club in the United States with 570 members as of February 2014. The club had 590 members for the 2019-2020 season.
Jacqueline "Jacqui" Kapinowski is a two-time American Paralympian who competed in wheelchair curling at the 2010 Winter Paralympics and in rowing at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
The Duluth Curling Club (DCC) is a curling club located in Duluth, Minnesota, United States. DCC is the curling club with the second largest membership in the United States.
The United States Mixed Doubles Curling Championship is the national curling championship for mixed doubles curling in the United States. The winning team in the tournament represents the United States at that year's World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship.
Ann Brown was an American curler who was elected to the United States Curling Association Hall of Fame in 1993.
