Men's Curling Team Set for Rematch With Canada
Canada accounts for an estimated 94 percent of the world's curlers, including Brad Gushue, above. They have won 29 world championships.
(By Stephen Munday -- Getty Images)
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No sooner had Canada beaten the United States in the final game of the men's round-robin than the teams started preparing to meet again. They play today, with the winner guaranteed at least a silver medal. The loser plays the loser of the other semifinal for the bronze.
Curling has a small niche in the United States. It is headquartered in Bemidji, Minn., and the sport tends to moves north from there. A medal in Turin would be a first for American curling and, the players hope, a boost for the game in their homeland.
On the other hand, more than a million Canadians play the sport -- an estimated 94 percent of the world's curlers -- and they have brought home 29 world championships. When they go to an international tournament, everybody back home expects them to win.
"At least by their countrymen, I guess that's the case," U.S. skip Pete Fenson corrected. "But we don't expect them to win. To us, they're just the team we have to get by to get to the gold medal game."
Curlers say it's not quite a rivalry: Fenson's American team has played Brad Gushue's Canadian team a only few times. But in the tight-knit curling community, the individual players see each other frequently and know each other well.
"We've played them a couple times before. We know how they play. They know how we play," said U.S. vice skip Shawn Rojeski. "We're rivals, if you want to call it that. We're rivals to the point where it should be a good game."
Curling Today's Men's Semifinals Canada vs. United States (CNBC, 5-8 p.m.) Finland vs. Britain Today's Women's Semifinals Norway vs. Sweden Canada vs. Switzerland (USA, 8 a.m.-2 p.m.)
