Second Thoughts

Crazy pants sitting well with curlers

Members of the Norwegian men’s Olympic curling team — (from left) Christoffer Svae, Thomas Ulsrud, Haavard Peterson and Torger Nergaard — will wear brightly colored uniforms at the Winter Olympics that will generate attention regardless of their performance.
Members of the Norwegian men’s Olympic curling team — (from left) Christoffer Svae, Thomas Ulsrud, Haavard Peterson and Torger Nergaard — will wear brightly colored uniforms at the Winter Olympics that will generate attention regardless of their performance.

Just in case the sweeping and the shouting and the chesslike strategy isn't enough to draw in the fans at the Olympics, the Norwegian curling team is again calling on its secret weapon.

Crazy pants!

For the third consecutive Winter Games, the men's team from Norway will shake up the staid, 600-year-old sport by wearing brightly colored trousers in competition. Among the uniforms for Pyeongchang unveiled Tuesday is one that makes them look like they were the losing team in a patriotic paintball outing.

"Curling is kind of similar to golf, very traditional," Norwegian second Christoffer Svae said in a telephone interview from New York, where the team -- well, mostly the pants -- was doing a media blitz. "When we started playing in colored pants, it was breaking tradition. It was turning heads, for sure."

The pants first attracted attention at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, where they debuted as a red, white and blue argyle in a field filled with black or other dark trousers. They -- the pants, not the curlers -- soon had a Facebook page that now has nearly 500,000 followers and its own email address to field media inquiries.

Back then, the team just ordered and paid for the pants off the rack, but it soon became a sponsorship opportunity. Loudmouth, which had mostly marketed toward golfers, signed on for the Sochi Games and designed pants just for the team, including a pattern featuring the Norwegian flag and another outfit with high socks and knickers.

The company also has backed an American beach volleyball team at the London Olympics; golfer John Daly (Dardanelle, Arkansas Razorbacks); and Peter "Snakebite" Wright, the No. 2 darts player in the world.

But its biggest splash has come with the Norwegian curlers, and it is backing them again in Pyeongchang. Svae said they will have 12 different outfits -- enough to get them through the medal round -- and some cash to pay for travel and other expenses.

"It's huge," Svae said. "We get funding from Loudmouth to cover travel expenses, and also the fame we get from the Loudmouth clothes get us other sponsors in Norway, because they want to be associated with the brand we've made."

Positive outlook

Jon Rahm's passion is on full display on the golf course. He developed a more introspective side in the summer after his sophomore year at Arizona State, and he believes it allowed his career to blossom.

"A lot of people make the mistake that golf is their life. I was one of those people," Rahm said in an interview at Kapalua. "I do get mad on the golf course. When I'm done playing, one hour after, it's over. It's gone. I allow myself to be frustrated at the mistakes. After that, life moves on."

So he made a list of why he should be thankful and all the people who have helped him along the way.

"You realize how many people you have in your life," he said. "That makes you smile. There are so many things to be happy about. And once you separate them, it's better. I did that in the summer of 2014, and that's when my career really took off. The happier I am in life, the better golfer I will be, instead of thinking the better golf I play, the happier I will be. You can play great golf and be unhappy. It's what you do in life that's going to make you happy."

Sports quiz

Canada has won the most Olympic curling medals (10). What country has won the second most?

Sports answer

Sweden with 6

Sports on 01/24/2018

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