Author:  Glen Kennedy, brother of curler Marc Kennedy
We've now watched the team beat Norway, Germany, Sweden, France and Denmark, to sit at the top of the standings at 5-0.  The guys look to be comfortable with the ice and atmosphere, as they continue to get stronger as the event progresses.  Team Canada's remaining round-robin games include Great Britain, Switzerland, USA & China.  The top four teams will qualify for the playoff round, into a two-semi system.  

There is no other sport at the Games that requires the amount of playing time as curling.  Each team will be on the ice between 25 and 35 hours over the entire event, which takes 12 days to complete.  Unlike what non-curlers may believe, this takes a tremendous amount of fitness and conditioning to be successful. 

The sport has definitely changed over the last 20 years.  A typical front-end (lead and second) will sweep upwards of 650 rocks during this event.  If anyone ever questions the fitness level of the sport, I've always suggested to sweep 20 rocks over a half-an-hour period as hard as you can, and see how you feel the next morning.

The atmosphere at the curling venue continues to amaze us.  The crowd in this venue (5,500 spectators) has been twice as loud as any crowd at the Edmonton Oilers games (16,000 spectators) for years.  The crowd cheers for great shots, cheers for misses, and we've even overheard heckling at times. 

This has been extremely entertaining, and anyone we have spoken with in the crowd has totally enjoyed the experience.  Our family, with the majority of us being curlers as well, is spending a fair bit of time explaining the game to surrounding spectators.  It is great to see this overall enthusiasm for this great sport.

We're heading into downtown this afternoon to check out the Olympic flame and surrounding venues, looking forward to a great game against Great Britain tonight.

Go Canada Go!!  Let's go Bear & Cubs!