Sweep the Rock! Sweep the Rock! Sweep the Rock!

Congratulations to the 1924 British Olympic Curling Team!!

The International Olympic Committee announced today that Britain’s victorious 1924 team will receive official recognition as Olympic champions – rather than their previous classification as winners of a demonstration sport.

They defeated Sweden 38-7 and France 46-4 in outdoor matches lasting 18 ends – but never got the chance to defend their title as curling disappeared from the Olympic programme until 1998.

I didn’t understand how the Olympic Committee can, years after the fact, upgrade an Olympic Competition like that, but I found the answer:

“Curling was part of the official programme at the first Olympic Winter Games in 1924, and the IOC is pleased to have been able to confirm that.”

So there you go. The Olympic Curling Teams of the 1980s and 1990s, up to the 1998 re-emergence as an official Olympic Sport, will just have to know that they will never be medal award winners, but will also be proud in the knowledge that they were instrumental in keeping the Curling Flame going.

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