No Joke, American Curlers Give Si Bum’s Rush Sport Not Laughable To Players, But Media Show It Little Respect

The U.S curling team has gone big time: They’ve blown off Sports Illustrated.

Tired of answering questions like: “Why is curling an Olympic sport?” and “Do they call you Al Gore when you’re the vice skip?” rather than ones about curling strategy, the fourth-place Americans were uncooperative with a senior writer from the prestigious sports magazine.

“These guys aren’t like Michelle Kwan, they aren’t used to this,” said Rick Patzke, public relations manager for USA Curling. “They get all the questions from writers trying to be funny and they only want to joke so much. So they’ve gotten a little upset.”

While the Winter Olympics has plenty of other obscure sports - luge, snowboarding, biathalon - curling is the least familiar to the U.S. media. In its first Olympics as a medal sport, it rarely, if ever, has been broadcast on an American television network. The game is played by two four-member teams. Members slide 42-pound pieces of granite down a length of ice into a target called the house. Teammates use brooms to frantically sweep the ice to reduce friction and direct the stone to land on the target, knock an opponent’s rock away or block an opponent’s next shot.

Unlike some figure skaters, who arrive with media consultants, curlers are blue-collar people. Mike Peplinski, who as vice skip gives his teammates advice on where to push the stone, is a teacher. U.S. captain Tim Somerville is a groundskeeper. Another team member works in a paper factory.

“Even if you’re the top curler in the world, we’re not at the point where you can make a living at it,” said Ray Turnbull, TNT’s curling analyst. “Nobody is a superstar athlete in this sport.”

While curlers are unlike many of the competitors at the Olympics, they had something in common with almost every athlete who feels a lack of respect and attention: The curlers came to Nagano with a chip on their shoulders.

When asked how much curling CBS would cover, executive producer Rick Gentile laughed. The network doesn’t even have a curling broadcast analyst.

“They’re disappointed,” Patzke said. “They were hoping people would show more respect for the sport.”

A fourth-place finish for the U.S. curlers was just about what was expected, Turnbull said, although the team had a few dramatic moments. It defeated Japan on the last shot to advance to the semifinals, where it was crushed by Canada. The U.S. lost to Norway in the bronze-medal game.

More painful than the loss, though, was the postgame news conference. Patzke said most U.S. curling games were attended by fewer than 10 reporters. The medal game had between 20 and 30. Afterwards, the disappointed curlers wanted to talk about the game. What they got were jokes. Then came Steve Rushin from Sports Illustrated to talk to players on the way to bus.

They didn’t want to cooperate.