Just here for curling

If you watch the Winter Olympics long enough you will soon stumble onto curling. A very slow sport that is close to shuffleboard on ice.

It is slow, but the strategy is neat to see. Most Olympic events are about speed and strength. Curling has some skill to it, but it is mental more than anything else.

It’s been the only event in the Winter Olympics I have been able to dive into. The individual events that require a snowboard or skis happen in a blink of an eye. I can’t get invested in a sport like that. Sports like bobsled, where a hundredth of second can determine the gold medal, seem more of a gimmick than a competition.

Curling is pure strategy, fascinating to watch and yet it is so simple. Do you play a guard? Take out the guard? Curl around the guard and onto the button. The folks in these games make it look easy but it is not.

Curling is expensive. The stones are pure granite and if you get 20 of them then you have a large bill.

At the same time I want to play this game. Greene County has plenty of outdoor activities for the summer but little indoor opportunities when its cold. Maybe a Greene County Curling Facility is in order. Maybe.

Nathan Pace is the Sports Editor for the Greene County Daily World and can be reached at npacegcdw@gmail.com. His “Low Budget Sports Show” airs weekly on Facebook Live.