With Olympic Popularity, Windy City Curling Hosts Open House

Donate Today Buy This Video

Curling has slid onto the local scene.

“This is a curling stone or curling rock, it’s about 40 or 42 pounds of granite and they only get the granite for these stones in a particular island in Scotland. So it’s a very special rock” explained volunteer curling instructor, Beth DeGeeter.

In honor of the Winter Olympics, Windy City Curling held an open house for anyone who was interested in learning how to slide, sweep and score in the winter sport.

How is Curling Played?

“Each person on the team throws two stones, and the closest stone to the inner circle which we call ‘the button’ , so if there’s any stones left in the house that team gets a point.” DeGeeter explained.

Open houses hosted by Windy City encourage the traditions of curling, like chivalry and respect on and off the ice. “It’s one of the few sports that not adjudicated, there’s no ref it’s just you and the other players. So you have to respect each other on and off the ice” said Girithar Anthay, another volunteer at the open house.

Olympic Dreams

Casually picking the game up can quickly evolve into a someone becoming a seasoned player of a lifetime sport. Or like instructor Girithar Anthay, you can have Olympic hopes; as he’s currently working to try and create India’s first Olympic Curling team.

“The most watched Winter Olympic sport in India is curling, by the way, so we want to try and make way for people are are interested to get to that stage, so hopefully one day we will be there,” said Anthay. “You have to try it. It’s so much fun.” Anthay added.

Ryan Sartori and Ryan Skryd report for Naperville News 17.

If you have a story idea, we want to hear from you!