Because the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing get underway, curling is without doubt one of the first sports activities to get its competitors began. This challenging but admittedly quirky sport is all the time a fan favourite on the Olympics, however in the event you solely watch it as soon as each 4 years, you won’t have a agency grasp on how the game is played or scored. So, let’s begin with one of many fundamentals. Here is what you’ll want to know in regards to the “ends” in Olympic curling, which decide simply how lengthy a match can go on.
What Is an Finish in Curling?
An “finish” is the official curling time period for what we would colloquially name a “spherical” in every other sport. Throughout an finish, each player throws two stones (or as much as three in combined doubles), however just one crew is awarded factors when the spherical is completed. The crew whose stone lands closest to the “button” — that is the middle of the scoring circle — will get to attain. They get extra factors for every stone that is nearer to the button than their opponents’ greatest throw.
How Many Ends Are Performed in Olympic Curling?
Based on NBC Olympics, the variety of ends in Olympic curling varies between occasions. Within the males’s and girls’s tournaments, a sport consists of 10 ends, whereas the mixed-doubles event solely goes as much as eight ends. As soon as all ends have been accomplished and scored, the crew with essentially the most factors wins. If there is a tie, additional ends are performed till one of many groups breaks the tie.
Nonetheless, not each sport will final for the standard variety of ends. In lots of tournaments, groups could select to concede in the event that they really feel that they are too far behind to realistically catch up. That is really a quite common a part of the game and regarded good sportsmanship. On the Olympics, males’s and girls’s groups are allowed to concede after simply six ends within the “spherical robin” stage of the event. As soon as they’ve reached the playoffs, they need to play no less than eight ends earlier than conceding to their opponents. You may most likely see a mixture of well mannered concessions and nail-biters through the Olympics as the very best on the planet compete on the game’s greatest stage.
