Great Scots

Britain celebrates after women win curling gold

LONDON (AP) -- A group of Scottish housewives armed with stones and brooms accomplished what a generation of taut, young British athletes couldn't. They won gold at the Winter Olympics.

And now Britain is swept up in a new curling craze, in love with the sport that brought a Winter Games winner to the country for the first time since Torvill and Dean.

"Brits sweep to Olympics glory," blared a headline in the Daily Star.

"Brits make Olympic history," roared the rival Sun.

Even The Times, the staid icon of the British establishment, gave the victory front-page coverage, following it up with an editorial, something normally reserved for only the most serious of matters.

"In most quarters, curling one's eyelashes might be considered more exciting," the newspaper opined, before going on to say it was, actually, a very important achievement.

Britain's last gold medal at a Winter Olympics came in 1984, when Jayne Torville and Christopher Dean won in ice dancing.

The most famous British Olympian since was probably Eddie Edwards, aka Eddie the Eagle, the novice ski jumper whose hapless performance in ski jumping at the 1988 Winter Games gained him international attention.

"A Brit standing on the medal podium in the snow is no longer as rare a sight as catching a glimpse of the lesser-spotted bald eagle," said Press Association, the domestic news agency.

The victory sent the British press scurrying to the history books. Suddenly, they have recalled that curling was a Scottish sport reaching back to the 16th century. Claims that the Dutch may have founded the sport have been dismissed.

Television networks began running live reports on the curling team during normal programming. By the time Thursday's final rolled around, the British Broadcasting Corp. was running hours of live coverage. More than 3 million viewers tuned in.

BBC commentators assigned to curling were bemused, suddenly finding themselves elevated from doing one of the least desirable chores on the Olympic slate to dominating prime time viewing back home.

Even Prime Minister Tony Blair got into the act.

On a trip to Scotland on Friday, he said, "I'm well aware that the interest in Scotland today is not about my visit, but the absolutely astonishing performance of the curling team.

"It was wonderful, exciting, thrilling and a brilliant performance, and well done to all the Scots who made up the British team. Not just the whole of Scotland but the whole of Britain is really proud of them."

The curling queens, as they have been dubbed, are unlikely to be forgotten soon. One of the nation's biggest supermarket chains said it would offer them a contract -- for what else? -- to promote floor cleaning products.

 

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