Olympic Curling Preview

The game may have been invented in Scotland, but the Candadians act like they own the sport. However, a gold medal in Curling for the Canadians might not come as easy as a St. Lawrence Street damsel. The United States is representing this year!

"I wouldn't have a problem saying our U.S. women's team is as strong as one of the top teams in Canada," said Steve Brown, the U.S. women's coach.

So why is the Joe Namath of Curling Coaches so confident? Unless you've been living in a cave, you already know it's because of the Johnson sisters. Cute Cassie is the skip, and Jet Setting Jamie is the vice skip. They can skip with me anytime.

They're not twins (Jamie's a year older), but it's been said they have some sort of mental communication working on the ice. True, they're quiet; their games will have far fewer "Hurry hard!"s than those on neighboring sheets.

I've heard plenty of "hurry's" and "hards" from the Johnson sisters on my sheets.

Before we get too caught up in the US, Canada rivalry, we better show Scotland some respect. Groundskeeper Willy may be a happy man because the Scots playing under the British flag have a secret weapon:

The country's Olympic curlers will be armed in Torino with state-of-the-art brooms that measure sweeping efficiency. (Not for retail sale, but they reportedly cost $39,120 to develop.) How much pressure are they applying to the ice? What is the range of motion in front of the stone? The data is collected, analyzed and kept top secret.

Looks like the Brits got a hold of Harry Potter's Firebolt! Don't matter. Even if the U.S. team is using Cleansweeps and Nimbus 2000's they'll still be bring home the Curling Gold.