I’m probably being stupid, but in what way would doping help you in a sport like curling?

As it’s not a physical sport I’m struggling to understand the benefits?

Does it heighten your senses?

Confused.

The laxative properties of cannabis are well documented.

You’d need some kind of chemical help to make it seem interesting or exciting !!

Curling is awesome……official.

It’s the new darts!

It’s like doping in golf… You need something to calm you down when the excitement threatens to get too much.

Beta Blockers, reduce your nerves.

Shamelessly stolen from Twitter. I LoLd

[watching curling]

after 1 min: ugh this is dull

10 mins: he’s overdone the turn on this stone

30 mins: three in the house means nothing if your centre guard is ripe for a hit and roll

1hr: SWEEEEEEEP MOTHER******!!!!

I think you are underestimating how physical the sport actually is at the international level, especially the doubles competition.  Whether any drug would actually give a performance enhancement worth the risk of getting caught is obviously questionable.  Whether that particular drug would, seems even more questionable, but of course it could be a placebo type effect.

The accused athlete is suggesting someone who didn’t get selected was bitter and spiked his drink in an article I read last night.  That seems fairly far fetched but I guess is not entirely impossible.

he been accused od taking Meldonium. From the bbc:

It’s advertised as giving a mental focus, removing external stress so you feel sharper. There is a slight central nervous system effect, like with stimulants such as caffeine, which gives you a sharper edge.

It would make a lot of sense for a head sport like Curling.

I think you are underestimating how physical the sport actually is at the international level

Could be they made a mistake of when to stop taking it during the build up.

I think you are underestimating how physical the sport actually is at the internationally level

Lol. It’s bowls on ice. With added sweeping.

it’s not a physical sport

Clearly, you’ve never tried it. It is bloody knackering.

“I think you are underestimating how physical the sport actually is at the international level, especially the doubles competition.”

Genuine LolZ  . please clarify..?

The obvious answer is that they are all juiced to the gills. All of them. And this Russian got caught because Grigory Rodchenkov is in Witness Protection in the USA instead of keeping the Russian athletes up to speed with the latest PED technologies.

Maldonium was taken endemically by Russians. Then they banned it. Maybe he didn’t get the memo. Spiked drink 😀

Roger, bowls is classically a sport associated with people of an older generation (although I think at the top levels there are younger folk leading the field).  Whilst there are certainly older curlers around, they aren’t making it to the olympics.  Now given that experience and wisdom should help with the strategy and even the trickier shots why is that?  Look at the teams that are there – all younger and fitter than when curling first (re)enterrred the games. That itself suggests there is a physical element.

bowls doesn’t involve you chasing your ball over the grass frantically polishing the path in front of it.  In doubles that effort is shared between just two people so even if you are the one sliding the stone a second later you will be on your feet sweeping.

if I’ve got my maths right 10+ ends, 8 stones, 150 ft = 7k per match (you have to walk both ways) which whilst not done in a rush, is against the clock, and half of it could be furiously sweeping.  Go give it a try…

Pull the other one! You’d get more of a workout taking a dog for a walk. 😂

Poly it must have changed since 2010

However planking is apparently great for powerful sweeping

“The big physical demand within curling is the sweeping,” said Bradley. Although not every stone requires vigorous sweeping, and only two players per team sweep at any one time, the sport requires both intense physical output and intense concentration. Vigorous bouts of sweeping can raise the heart rate to 170-200 beats per minute, and over the course of a long tournament fatigue can accumulate.

“You can imagine maybe playing a round of golf and maybe having to run up a steep hill every third hole and then still be able to play your game and keep your form,” Bradley said.

But most golf tournaments last 3-4 days. Each curling team at the Winter Olympics will play nine matches in eight days, each lasting longer than two hours. Medal-round competitors will play two more. Training to avoid fatigue is one reason why physical conditioning is now a much bigger part of curling, noted Bradley.

That’s not to suggest that curlers are fit enough to dominate extremely fatiguing sports such as water polo.

“Since most of the curlers in the world are in colder climates, you’re not going to see bronzed, beach physiques curling very often,” said Jonathan Reeser, a sports injury epidemiologist and the chair of the institutional review board at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin.

https://www.insidescience.org/news/curling-science

Get thee to a bonspiel* and then let us know how you get on.

*Today’s word of the day.

As if repeatedly hoying a 20kg lump of Paddys Milestone  about wasn’t enough, you also have to perform the single most unnatural locomoitve movement ever whilst bent double and sweeping.

All whilst trying to not spectaculary fall on your arse.

You should try it. It’s tremendous fun.

furiously sweeping

Well, that’s one way to describe it.

You are assuming I haven’t tried it.

my local perchy.  whilst I agree it is tremendous fun, it is physically a piece of piss

http://www.ostersundscurling.se/Klubbinfo/OstersundsCurlinghall

I’m probably being stupid by what is it about curling that makes it worthy of being an olympic sport? There must be some valid historical or cultural connection that justifies it as I can’t imagine it’s on a whim. I’m not taking anything away from the skill and concentration involved but it is Crown Green Bowling/Petanque on ice and I think suggesting their worthiness for the Olympics might be met with slight derision.

Mind you considering they’re including speed climbing now anything is possible.

There must be some valid historical or cultural connection that justifies it as I can’t imagine it’s on a whim

Historically it’s played every winter.

Google curling pond road. Then marvel at all the curling pond roads in the UK.

It’s got way more validity behind it than…

Hurtling down a specific man made track on a teatray

Snowboarding

Any kind of skiing which isn’t to cover ground.

It’s got way more validity behind it than…

couldn’t agree more, the vast majority of winter olympic sports are a **** joke 😂

Any kind of skiing which isn’t to cover ground.

Genuine question but what kind of skiing is that? I thought all skiing involved covering ground in some way shape or form.

Can we debate speed climbing next? Seriously WTF? I get competition climbing though the purist in me says it’s all just something you do when it’s raining and you can’t climb outside but speed climbing, why? What on earth does it prove?

I’m watching the curling now. I have no idea what’s going on. ARE WE WINNING OR WOT.

Genuine question but what kind of skiing is that? I thought all skiing involved covering ground in some way shape or form.

I was meaning in the sense of skiing for transportation.

Moguls skijumps slope whatever not exactly steeped in history and culture are they?

ARE WE WINNING OR WOT.

We went into the 8th with a slight advantage but that 2 in the 9th puts it right on a knife edge. We need 2 in the 10th or Switzerland will go into the tie breaker with last stone.

oi! I find curling an extreme sport especially when chilli has been involved

I’m probably being stupid by what is it about curling that makes it worthy of being an olympic sport?

Well, it actually has to satisfy various criteria, like having an international governing body and stuff. Then it can be recognised by the IOC, but that’s not the same as being included in the Olympics – apparently chess and bowls are both recognised Olympic sports, but not competing ones.

My theory is simply that someone at the IOC is having a laugh or that international curling as a sport is so lucrative that it’s somehow bought its way into the games. I’m tending towards the former, if only because…

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/feb/18/norways-curlers-and-their-incredible-winter-olympic-trousers-ranked

Man with hot wife seeks to improve endurance.

Bugger all to do with the curling I’d say.

“I’m probably being stupid by what is it about curling that makes it worthy of being an olympic sport? There must be some valid historical or cultural connection that justifies it as I can’t imagine it’s on a whim. I’m not taking anything away from the skill and concentration involved but it is Crown Green Bowling/Petanque on ice and I think suggesting their worthiness for the Olympics might be met with slight derision.”

Let’s hope some berk makes of fool of himself by suggesting going for a ride on a bike should be an olympic sport.

Hmmm. I smell a rat. It’s a set up, orchestrated (ignorantly and badly) by the IOC because their noses were put out of joint and their credibility with the western leaders at stake. Let me elaborate…

As I understand it, the IOC wanted to ban Russia from competing or a long time but their will was overruled by some lefty handwringing committee and as we’re  being constantly reminded that the Russians are still the bad guys in every sphere of life, the IOC were also playing to the tune that funds them, a lot of money.

Anyway, some incompetent in the IOC came u with this brilliant plan to implicate that Russia are still at it, it doesn’t get any official sign off because no one wants to leave a trail and hence, the details are overlooked and the scapegoat who came up with the idea is told to implement.

Unfortunately, their sporting knowledge has kinda left a few too many questions.

On the plus side, the wife is hot and we’re being given lots more photos and exposure.

End result, Russia gets banned from all sports for ever, except for the wendyball thing this summer, which will go ahead because FIFA are probably more corrupt than the IOC, just.

CBA to quote as no idea if this forum works..

But whoever said there must be a reason the “athletes” are young and not old in curling compared to bowls…

Temperature, old Gladys can’t deal with the cold or her knee starts giving her jip hence the whippersnappers taking over

Because the Russians have just gone the whole nine yards and made doping compulsory rather than just plain ‘encouraged’?

Howsyourdad – yip huge shift in the top level competitors over that time scale.

GT – Tenpin bowls was a demo sport in Soul 88, and was close to being one in 2020.  Carpet Bowling is a sport at the Paralympics and Lawn Bowls is in the Comonwealth games.  Shooting, archery, etc might be equally “questioned”.  Personally though my issue is with sports that are based purely on judges marks – like diving, halfpipe, ice dance, gymnastics etc.  A spectator should know who won without needing the judges opinions – otherwise it’s not really a sport, more a performance!

I can imagine curling would be made better if you dropped acid before the game (is it called a game?). Even more so if those psychedelic pants  in that photo up there are standard kit.

Man with hot wife seeks to improve endurance…

That was my first thought.. 🤣