Granite Curling Club | Video
Visa’s slogan in the run up to an Olympic Games has long been ‘Go World.’ That sentiment has never been more obvious to former Mercer Islander Steve Penny than during the times when he has carried the Olympic torch.
Curling, much like hockey, has been adopted as a Canadian national game. While its roots are Scottish, curling has a strong foothold with our neighbors to the north. Since its introduction during the 1988 Calgary games as a demonstration sport and in 1998 at Nagano as an official event, Canada has been the only country where men’s and women’s curling teams have medaled in every Olympics.
During the last winter Olympics, almost 1,000 people came to a two-day open house at the Granite Curling Club in North Seattle. Before the club even opened the first morning, the parking lot was full of people excited to check out a sport that most had only ever heard of.
For all of the experiences and accomplishments that Christian Niccum has had, there has been something he gave up to make it a possibility. It’s the plight of many athletes, especially those in a sport which requires training across the country and competitions around the world. But the possibility of competing in the Olympics kept the longtime luge athlete coming back to the sport, despite training on the opposite side of the country from his family.
