Paralympic Curling

The 2010 Olympics may be over, but the 2010 Paralympic Games are in full swing this week. Unlike the Olympics, the tickets are very economical and quite available. So tonight our company bought some 80 tickets to a wheelchair curling event, and enjoyed an evening out together.

My daughter got to meet her favourite mascot, Sumi (as you can tell by her shrit and keychain - she also has a stuffed toy Sumi which I didn't let her bring). (Click any photo for a larger image.)

I am not big on watching sporting events, so amused myself by watching the crowd, and taking photos with our pocket digital camera. But as the evening progressed, I found myself more and more drawn into the game, especially with the exciting ending.

Here are some of the photos from the evening.

The venue is a new facility, near Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver.

My daughter and I got into the spirit with some face tattoos.  My son didn't want to play along.

I have never seen wheelchair curling before, so it was interesting.  The person throwing the rock locked their wheelchair, but then was stabilized by a team member behind them.  Here is a photo of the Swiss team - they were unmistakable with their decorative wheel covers.

Here is a photo of the Canadian team.  In the next lane, the German team sports their colourful wheel covers.

In the curling event, there were 4 matches in parallel, each playing 8 sides, and 8 rocks per side. Canada was matched up against Italy. It turned out to be the closest match, as you can see from the scoreboard, with it tied up after 7 sides.  In the 8th side, Canada started, so Italy threw the last rock, overtaking Canada in that very last rock.  So the fans got their money's worth, and even though the crowd was primarily Canadian fans, there was hearty applause for Italy's performance, and I think we all went home pleased with the entertainment.