I freakin' love curling.

In a surprising twist to these winter Olympics I've found myself following, not the usual alpine skiing events, but rather a relative newcomer to the games, curling. Shocked? So am I.

I've never really thought much of the sport, but then again neither have most Americans. We were quick to dismiss it during previous Olympics, and a lot of people have ridiculed it by calling it nothing more than shuffleboard on ice. That's probably not the worst thing anyone's ever called a sport, but it's definitely much more than that.

The game is simple. Each team is comprised of 4 players, each of whom slide two 42-pound granite stones down a 130-foot long sheet of ice and try to make it stop inside a 12-foot diameter target. If that sounds hard, it is. After all 16 stones have been thrown, one team scores a point for each stone closest to the center. The team with the most points after 10 ends (think innings) wins.

The players can attempt to manipulate the stone by sweeping the ice in front of it to get it to move in different ways, hence the weird brooms. They also try to block the target by leaving stones in front of it, or just knock others out of the target area entirely.

All in all, it's been very interesting to learn about. It's also nice to watch a sport where it isn't all about one athlete telling everyone else how great he is and how he should be paid more money, etc. The usual garbage.

We also have an added reason to tune in, the US Men's Curling team has advanced through to the medal round with a 6-3 record. They take on Canada in the semifinals on Wednesday for a shot at the gold medal match. The US has never won an Olympic medal in curling, so a win tomorrow would be a big step forward. I know I'll be cheering them on.