A curling interlude

More curling hijinks, courtesy of Canadian lead Christine Keshen. After yesterday morning's 6-5 loss to the Swiss, Keshen was back at her apartment, having a nap, with earplugs in her ears. She thought the team was meeting at the apartment. It was not so. Not knowing where Keshen was, the team left for the arena without her. Coach Paul Webster went searching for her at the apartment, then went to the rink to get the key, then back to the apartment to retrieve Keshen, then back to the arena, whereupon Keshen "ran as fast as I could" and arrived in the middle of the first end.

"It definitely wasn't ideal, I will give you that," said teammate Amy Nixon. "When she showed up, we were just so relieved that she was all right, because we thought something was wrong potentially. That's the most important thing. Our fifth player [alternate] is really good, so that wasn't a factor at all. It was 'Oh my goodness, she's sick or she's been kidnapped.'"

Keshen warmed up and quickly entered the game against Norway, which the Canadians went on to win. I asked whether her heart was pounding when she realized what happened.

"No, in fact I was laughing," she said. "I thought it was the funniest thing ever. I thought it was going to be the funniest story ever."

"It won't happen again," Nixon said.

Meantime, while most of the women's players wear long shirts or jackets, Keshen goes with short sleeves, and occasionally even rolled-up short sleeves.

"You know, this was a very warm game today," Keshen said. "It's kind of my trademark style."

"Quite the saucy number," said Kim the Canadian. "I find it pretty cold in here, I don't know about you."

I was angling for all these interviews while the Canadian team was blowing me off in order to hang out with and hug a smallish, cutish woman in a Canadian team jacket. I asked the smallish, cutish woman if she was a curler. She said no, a figure skater. I asked what was the biggest difference between curling and figure skating. She said the curling ice is pebbled. This, by the way, turned out to be 1988 silver medalist Elizabeth Manley, who had never seen a curling game in person but is a huge supporter of the Canadian women.

"I am SO officially your good luck charm now," she said to the team, between hugs.

And then, of course, there is the matter of the Swedish women and their heavy metal appearance in the Hammerfall video "Hearts on Fire," which I'm sure has also been much discussed and was actually linked on this site, in a comment below. My wireless connection is kind of balky right now, but early indications are that this is the greatest video of all time. This site calls it "the cheesiest video in heavy metal history," which makes me feel warm all over.

In the video, I'm told, the Swedish curlers and heavy metal rockers switch roles. CBC radio correspondent Nick and I spent some time with Swedish lead Anna Svaerd, who, appropriately, sings lead in the video.

We asked whether she likes heavy metal. "No, not really," she said, "but I like the song "Hearts on Fire." But no, I don't like that kind of music."

We asked the genesis of the video, and she said a magazine wrote that "there's no rock and roll in curling and we thought maybe we could show the Swedish people that there is some rock and roll in curling."

We asked whether she plays music herself, and she said "no. I don't even like to sing."

We asked whether the nice chaps in Hammerfall were promising curlers. "Em, not that good," she said. "No, no, no."

I'm sure you'll agree that they have to be better curlers than musicians, though.

By Dan Steinberg |  February 17, 2006; 5:03 PM ET
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Tracked on February 23, 2006 05:58 PM

Posted by: Natalie | February 18, 2006 12:58 AM

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