On the left the allotment garden, on the right the World Curling Championships and in the middle an association president who wants to take care of the little worries: observations from Schaffhausen, where the Swiss team was very disappointing.
If you want to go to the World Curling Championships, you first have to go past the allotment gardens in Schaffhausen. This is actually a good parable, because curling is somewhat seen as the sport of the slightly old, well-educated lower middle class; and at least the density of all-weather functional jackets should be about the same in both worlds.
It’s Friday, Day 7 of the Men’s World Cup in the IWC Arena, which is located a few meters from the Breite Stadium, the wonderfully rustic former home of FC Schaffhausen, where the weeds are growing.
An hour before the start of the afternoon round with the big game between Switzerland and Germany, there will be selfies and autographs with a Swiss team member at the entrance. A woman hands out plastic flags and instructions to the rushing audience: “Fingers crossed!” In the brochure, Beau Welling, the American president of the World Curling Federation, writes that if he can be of any help, please contact him on his personal email address. One cannot remember ever having read anything comparable by Gianni Infantino.
The 1998 Olympic champion smuggled alcohol into the Olympic village
The familiar, sociable nature is an elementary part of the self-image of this sport, which has a very interesting etiquette that would also suit other sports with its idea of fairness. It says, among other things: “When in doubt, a curler decides in favor of his opponent.” There is also envy and resentment in this cosmos, you don’t have to kid yourself about it. But the reputation as a “gentleman’s” sport is not unfounded; the desire to act as a role model is clearly noticeable.
Globally, curling has remained a niche product, but at least it regularly appeals to a broad audience at the Olympic Games; It has already happened that SRF was able to report more than a million viewers. Since 1998, the name Patrick Hürlimann has been known in Switzerland even to those people who have not made it their life’s work to wipe granite stones over an ice surface. Hürlimann won Olympic gold in Nagano and then told candidly how he smuggled alcohol into the Olympic village in order to be able to at least add a little to the triumph. He also worked 100 percent; financially, the Olympic season was a zero-sum game due to the costly preparation time for his team.
Since then, the sport has become more professional. Gone at the highest level is the charming custom of the winner paying the loser an aperitif immediately after the end of the game. Joël Retornaz, the world number 1, who is competing for Italy, says: “There just isn’t enough time for it. But the custom still applies in popular sports and in Canada.” With almost 800,000 players, Canada is the curling mecca of the world, as in all ice sports; The prize money for the final tournament of the Grand Slam of Curling is $400,000.
There are spheres that Switzerland cannot keep up with, of course, but the sport is firmly anchored in society here; There are 52 curling halls from Adelboden to Zollbrück. Where it’s not just busy when companies register their bad-tempered employees for team building events every two years. The Swiss association has set itself the goal of reaching 8,000 licensed people by 2026. And to reduce the average age to under 50.
This requires fresh blood, and the recipe seems simpler than it actually is, as a quick look at the current composition of the Swiss elite shows. The Olympic champion Hürlimann has a daughter named Briar with Janet Hürlimann-Omand, former World Cup bronze medalist. She is one of the best Swiss curlers and is married to Yannick Schwaller, the Swiss skip at this World Cup. In a few weeks the pair will compete in the Mixed World Championships in Sweden. Schwaller’s father and uncle were both internationally successful curlers.
Of course, the World Cup, which is broadcast extensively live by SRF, is also a welcome vehicle to make the sport more popular. A medal would undoubtedly have helped. But the Swiss team already failed in the round robin. Despite the friendly ringing of cowbells from the audience, in the decisive game they lost to outsiders Germany 6:7; Schwaller’s team had not been convincing enough before. Which means that the wait for the big hit continues: The Swiss men have won World Cup gold three times, the last time in 1992 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. While the Swiss women have won World Cup titles in a row in recent years.
The World Cup in Schaffhausen was sold out before it even started
It’s no longer possible to follow what’s happening in Schaffhausen for those who decide to do so at short notice. The World Cup organizers were surprised by the rush, all tickets were sold out before the tournament, 1,200 per day. Special regulations were easily found for fans who had traveled specifically from Scotland and Canada. OK President Michael Stäuble says: “The ideal would have been 2,000 places. But the hall is what it is.”
Stäuble, 65 years old, was a commentator on SRF for a long time. It was he who transported the hussar pieces of double Olympic champion Simon Ammann from Salt Lake City to the Swiss parlors in 2002: “Fly Simi, fly.” Stäuble has been playing curling for over thirty years and this is his passion project. He says: “This has never happened in Schaffhausen: a World Cup for an Olympic sport. For us that’s the biggest thing.” The greatest thing in a place whose anthem is: “Blos e chlini Stadt.” The World Cup budget is almost one million francs, a quarter of which is provided by the city and canton of Schaffhausen.
It’s midday and anyone who leaves the hall to get a schnitzel sandwich hangs their jacket over the seat as if they had a German passport and wanted to reserve a deck chair under the Mallorcan sun early in the morning. The exact positioning in the stands seems to be as important as that of the stones on the ice. The keen curling connoisseur doesn’t want to miss anything, even if it’s not the Swiss who will make history in Schaffhausen.
