World Curling President Beau Welling wants to sweep away the sport’s Olympics-only tag and slide into a new era where fans are engaging with it throughout the year.
Curling, which originated in Scotland and is hugely popular in Canada, made its debut as an Olympic sport at the 1924 Games in Chamonix but was not part of the official program again until 1998 at Nagano, which brought it to a worldwide audience.
The governing body’s membership has risen to 77 associations from 28 since Nagano, but while curling is becoming more popular outside traditional winter sports strongholds it experiences peaks and troughs of interest in a pattern pegged to the Games.
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