Yes, there is controversy regarding that winter sport that fascinates so many.  I’m not talking about Hockey or Ice Skating or Cross-Country Skiing…we’re talking about…Curling.

This article, by Jennifer Ouellette and found on Gizmodo.com, offers insight into…

The Physics Behind the “Broomgate” Controversy Rocking the sport of Curling

All right, so I started this entry with tongue in cheek but let me now do an about face and say: I like Curling.  Really, I do.

Whenever the Winter Olympics are on or when I’m surfing around oddball cable channels and find they feature Curling, I stop.  I stare.  I enjoy.

There’s something incredibly fascinating, to me, about watching the sport even as I’d readily admit it is hardly the most physically demanding of winter sports and can be performed by your average person versus, say, running a Marathon or playing professional Football.

That’s not to say Curling doesn’t require concentration and mental skills, and that’s where the whole “broomgate” issue comes in.  In the game, you slide a “rock” across ice (not unlike bowling) and try to position your rocks closest to the center target while denying your opponent from doing the same.  When sliding your rock, your teammates may (or may not depending on your rock’s trajectory) brush the ice ahead of your rock to improve its speed or make it “curl” in one direction or the other.

The manner in which this brushing is achieved is by using a broom.

When I first saw Curling waaaaay back in the early 1970’s, this is what the brooms looked like:

Your eyes do not deceive you: The brooms used back then were actual, honest to goodness brooms.  This is what they use today:

These brooms are brooms in name only.  They’re high tech creations designed specifically for use in this sport.

The controversy, as outlined in the article above, is that new, even more high tech brooms have become so good it is feared they’re capable of turning all shots, even terrible ones, into good ones because they do such a great job in “fixing” the ice before the rock.

Anyway, I found the whole article fascinating to read but I suspect there plenty out there who wouldn’t.  To them I say, watch some great Curling shots and tell me even this sport can’t be exciting: