Intramural curling has swept into action this week, offering ISU students, faculty and staff a chance to play an unusual Olympic sport.

“I watched it on television last year, but I didn’t know it was an intramural sport,” said Katie Sullivan, senior in child and family services, who played for the first time this week. “I think it’s pretty cool.”

Curling is comparable to shuffleboard, except it’s played on ice. It is played with a 40-pound smooth circular “stone” with a handle on top. A twist of the handle upon releasing the stone makes it curl, much like a “hook” in bowling.

The stone is curled to the other side of the rink where a bull’s-eye is outlined on the ice. The object of the game is to place your team’s eight stones closest to the center.

Each team has four players on the ice at one time. While one player shoots the stone into the target area, two players sweep the ice in front of the stone’s path to control its speed. Sweeping polishes the ice to make it slicker. The fourth player acts as a strategist and signals the shooter where to place the stone.

Placement is key to success. Along with placing stones in the circle for points, they can be used to knock an opponent’s stone out of the circle or be used as a block for oncoming stones.

“It takes a little strategy, but mostly just luck,” said Luke DeBoer, senior in animal ecology, who also played two years ago. “It’s a lot of fun.”

A game consists of four ends — an end is equivalent to an inning in a game of baseball. All four team members shoot two stones each end, alternating with their counterparts. One point is given for each stone a team has closer to the center than the other team after each end of 16 stones. Only one team can score in an end.

Garry Greenlee, intramural sports coordinator, said he believes curling is a good way to do something unique that students may not have had the opportunity to do before.

“It’s just a fun recreational thing they have never done,” Greenlee said. “When watching curling in the Olympics, they can finally say, ‘I’ve done that.'”

Curling has been offered at Iowa State since the mid-’80s. When Greenlee took over intramurals in 1991, curling consisted of 24 teams. That number stayed relatively constant throughout the ’90s.

Due to the poor condition of the ice in the old Ames/ISU Ice Arena, curling was not offered after the 1998-99 school year. Greenlee said the ice was curved and didn’t allow the stone to go in a straight path.

Curling was revived with the construction of the new Ames/ISU Ice Arena in 2001. A combination of the new arena and coverage in the 2002 Winter Olympics has added to the popularity of the sport here on campus, Greenlee said. The number of teams doubled from 48 in 2001 to 96 in 2002. With 105 teams this year, it is at its highest total ever.

Linda Marticke, intramural sports coordinator, said one of the great things about curling is that everyone can play.

“It’s very relaxed and sometimes they dress in crazy outfits,” she said. “It’s more of a social sport.”

DeBoer recommended that everyone try curling at least once.

“No previous experience is required,” he said.

Marticke said that due to a limited time schedule, curling only runs six days out of the school year. Because intramural broomball starts Oct. 1, officials had to insert curling when time permitted.

Curling will continue Wednesday and Thursday from 9 p.m. to 12:45 a.m. and will conclude with the championship rounds 7 p.m. to midnight Sunday. It is a single-elimination tournament.