Curling is a great northern sport, and Canadian teams often win world championships. For the past 15 years, the men’s world championships and the women’s world championships (both referred to as “the worlds”) have been held at the same time, leading to considerable congestion on the rinks, trying to fit in all the games. As a result,
The World Curling Federation decided a year ago that beginning next year it will split the men’s and women’s world curling championship into two separate events. The men’s and women’s championships were combined into one in 1989. [This link and these quotes courtesy of BrianF]
But Colleen Jones, skip (sort of like a captain of the four-member team) of a world champion Canadian curling team, does not like the idea. She says that if the men’s and women’s worlds are split, people will not want to watch the women play. I do not agree with her, but I am certainly intrigued by her suggestion:
“I think the women are going to have to curl naked in order to get people out there,” the Canadian skip said Monday. “I’m not kidding. You’re going to have to hope for an Anna Kournikova to come along to really jazz it up.”
Well, that’s one way to increase the demand!
