Stones, sheets, and houses: Brush up on curling ahead of Lausanne 2020

Curling in a nutshell

Reinstated as an Olympic sport in 1998, teams take to the ice sheet with the aim of scoring more points than their opponent.

The teams – featuring either two or four athletes – take turns sending curling stones down the ice, hoping to land it in the middle of a target, known as the house.

DID YOU KNOW: Each curling stone, which weighs 44 pounds (19.96kg), is made of a rare granite quarried on the uninhabited Scottish island of Ailsa Craig.

Brooms help adjust the stone’s movement when the ice is swept, while the team with the closest stone to the centre wins the end. One point is gained for every stone closer than an opponent’s closest stone.

Eight stones are thrown down per team in each end, with a match lasting 10 ends unless it has already been forfeited.

The Mixed Team Competition

A total of 24 nations have qualified for the group stages of the mixed team competition.

Split into four groups of round-robin matches, the top two teams from each group will reach the quarter-finals. Winning semi-finalists will play in the gold-medal match, with the losers facing off in the bronze-medal match.

With the teams featuring two males and two females, each player sends down two stones per end.

Canada are the reigning YOG champions, while the nation has picked up at least one curling medal at every senior Olympics since its 1998 return.

The Mixed Doubles Competition

This event sees one male and one female from different nation form a mixed doubles team.

The knockout format is faster-paced, with each team only delivering five stones per end. However, each team places an extra stone before the start of each end, either in front of the house or in the middle of the house.

The player who sends down the first stone also delivers the last, with the other player taking the second, third and fourth turns for that end.

Japan’s Yako Matsuzawa and Switzerland’s Philipp Hösli combined to win YOG gold in 2016. The draw for Lausanne 2020 takes place after the mixed team competition concludes.

Mixed Team schedule

Qualifying games: from January 10 to 15

Medal game: Thursday, January 16

10:00 - 12:15 - Finals Mixed Team Competition

Mixed Doubles schedule

Qualifying games: from January 18 to 21

Medal game: Wednesday, January 22

09:30 - 11:30 – Semi-finals Mixed Doubles Competition

13:30 - 15:30 - Finals Mixed Doubles Competition