Curling team rebounds against Russia

Korea’s female curling team skip Kim Ji-sun, center, watches the stone as her teammates Lee Seul-bee, left, and Um Min-ji sweep the ice during their game against Russia at the Sochi Winter Olympics, Thursday. / AP-Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

Korean female curlers kept their hope of reaching the semifinal alive on their first Olympic appearance after

defeating Russia 8-4 Friday (KST) at the Ice Cube Curling Center.

Bouncing back from a bitter loss to the world No. 1 Sweden on Wednesday, skip Kim Ji-sun scored a critical three points with Korea’s final stone in the seventh end after taking out a Russian stone from the very center to seal Korea’s second win. Korea defeated Japan in the opener of the round-robin setup before losing consecutively to Switzerland and Sweden.

Tied with China, Japan and Britain, as of Friday 3 p.m., Korea is ranked fourth, with an upcoming game against China at 7 p.m. It remains to be seen whether the world No. 10 Korea will be able to upset the world No. 5 to establish a bridgehead to the semifinal.

A total of six wins was enough to reach the medal round in the three previous Olympic Games where 10 teams competed. Korea has two wins and two losses, with five games remaining.

“Team morale is high,” Kim said after the game. “With teammates doing a great job, I felt less pressured in my turn, which led to a good result.”

Korean women’s curling team celebrate after beating the Russian team 8-4. / AP-Yonhap

Um Min-ji replaced Shin Mi-sung, who made some errors at critical moments that collapsed Korea in a 7-4 loss to Sweden. There wasn’t any major strategy change for Korea but less mistakes certainly helped its win over Russia.

Russia went ahead 1-0 in the first end, but Korea came storming back in the second after scoring two points.

The two teams kept the tension alive before Kim’s critical shot in the seventh end put the result beyond doubt.

Getting more popular

Win or not, the Sochi Olympics will be memorable for the women’s curling team to many Korean fans.

The names of the team members top the list of “most searched words” on Korea’s largest search engine, Naver, every time they have a game, with questions about the sport’s rules.

With some of Korea’s medal hopefuls, including speed skaters Mo Tae-bum and Lee Seung-hoon, failing to reach the podium in their expected events, the curling team is filling the vacuum of celebrity glamour.

The Korean women’s performance has so far been remarkable, given that only 700 athletes are registered with the Korea Curling Federation. According to Canadian Curling Association, there are approximately 1,000 affiliated curling clubs, 14 provincial and territorial associations and close to one million Canadians who play the sport each year.

Despite the lack of athletes and hardware, Korea surprised the world at the 2012 world championships by beating Vancouver Olympic champions Sweden 9 to 8 and made it to the playoffs, in which they settled for fourth place.

Now Korea is proving the upset didn’t come just by luck.

After China, Korea will face Britain, Denmark, the United States and Canada, which has made it to the podium at every Olympics since the Nagano Games.

The semi final will take place on Feb. 19, at 7:00 p.m., and the final, on Feb. 20, at 10:30 p.m.

A layman’s guide to curling

The objective of the sport is to get more stones near the scoring area, or the “button,” than your opponent. A team gets one point for every stone that’s closer to the button after each of 10 “ends,” similar to sets in tennis.

There are four positions based on the order of when they release and their specific roles: the lead, second, vice and skip. The skip, who releases last, is usually the most skilled and experienced player as he or she will have to attempt the most difficult shots through the stones that are already in the way.

After a stone is released, two players will rush in front of it and sweep the ice to control the ball’s direction and distance. The skip is influential in tactics, staying behind the scoring area to monitor the stone’s movement. After the first few releases, the teams are faced with choices in strategy, including aiming for the button directly, blocking the path of the opponent or knocking the opponent’s stones out of the scoring area.

While curling the ice may appear smooth from a distance, the surface is actually

“pebbled,” an effect created by spraying water through sprinklers that have

different-sized holes. The tops of the frozen droplets are then scraped to provide friction for the stones to travel better.