FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Before the Olympic torch is even lit in Milan, Italy, the 2026 Winter Olympics are already underway on the ice.
Curling is one of the first events to start, with preliminaries beginning Wednesday. Team USA will slide into matchups against Norway and Switzerland on Thursday.
WATCH BELOW:
In honor of our U.S. teams heading into competition, the WPTV team laced up and learned the sport from a former Olympic curling coach and world championship medalist.
WPTV Investigative Reporter Kate Hussey was one of six team members who took to the ice at Baptist Health IcePlex in Fort Lauderdale to show why curling may look smooth but is anything but easy.
If there's one place Bill Todhunter feels most at home, it's on the ice. And he should — he's curled on it for 50 years.
"I started when I was two," Todhunter said jokingly.
So, when we asked the 2014 Team USA Olympic curling coach to take "Team WPTV" on as his student athletes, he bravely accepted the challenge. Emphasis on "bravely."
Some of us caught on quickly. Many of us needed a lot more practice, with several team members taking tumbles on the ice.
Still, Todhunter taught us the basics, and we soon learned the hard way there's a whole lot more to curling than it appears.
You need control, power, strategy from your team captain — the skip — and the help of your sweeper teammates to move the 40-pound curling stones down the ice and into the scoring circle.
How curling scoring works
Curling scoring is based on having stones closest to the center, called the "button," of the target, known as the "house," at the end of each round. The team with the stone closest to the center scores one point, plus one additional point for every other stone closer to the center than the opponent's best stone. Only one team scores per round.
The house is a 12-foot circle with the button at its center. Each round, called an "end," consists of 16 thrown stones — eight per team. Only stones inside or touching the house count for scoring.
When we knew enough to play a quick game of three-on-three, it became pretty clear we're not going to make the Olympic team anytime soon. But our match brought Todhunter back fond memories of his competitive days.
"The '07 worlds, we were playing Canada, we were playing in front of 10,000 people — Canada's undefeated," Todhunter said.
The experience taught us this sport is a lot harder than it looks, even with a whole lot of practice.
"Way harder," Todhunter said.
When asked where our team fell on the spectrum of talent among all the people he's taught, trained and coached, Todhunter diplomatically replied: "Right near the top!"
Learn to curl yourself
Baptist Health IcePlex is hosting public Learn to Curl sessions that anyone can sign up for on Feb. 13, 15 and 21. Click here to register.