Yes, it’s true. She said she’d never, ever do it.

But she did.

Vancouver Olympic silver medallist and curling heroine Cheryl Bernard is one of 13 female athlete models unveiled today in the new 2011 Women of Curling Calendar, an all-Canadian product now on sale for charity.

The glossy wall calendar features Calgary’s Bernard, Winnipeg’s four-time and defending Canadian champion Jill Officer (left, from Team Jennifer Jones) and even the legendary Colleen Jones, the five-time national women’s champion from Halifax, who has returned to competition this fall after a brief hiatus from the sport.

The 2011 Women of Curling Calendar, which features curling ladies from coast to coast, also includes national-level athletes, former junior champions and even a novice recently attracted to the sport following the excitement of Vancouver 2010.

“I know I said definitely not, no posing in a calendar,” laughed Bernard. “I think I said never, actually. But this one is not so much risqué, at least not in my case. At least I don’t think so!

“My image promotes fitness and health for all women. That’s what I want to project and that’s what this project offered.”

The first “Fire On Ice” women’s curling calendar debuted in the fall of 2005 and was an international media and pop culture sensation right through the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy.

That calendar, and more recent efforts, have all featured a majority of European curing stars. The 2011 edition, produced by The Curling News and aimed as a charitable fundraising project, features an all-Canadian cast of strong, confident and beautiful female athletes.

“These girls designed their own photo shoots, found their own photographers, and everyone contributed to it for charity,” said George Karrys, publisher of The Curling News.

“Some of these ladies went all out in terms of the creative concept, and things like wardrobe, makeup, you name it. The commitment they made is unbelievable.”

The calendar costs $29.95 each and is available online at womenofcurlingcalendar.com. It is also available through thecurlingnews.com and will also be available through other curling websites, such as teamjenniferjones.com.

Curling clubs, in addition to the athlete models, can access product at a discounted rate, which also makes the calendar a fundraiser for their local communities.

“We’ll be promoting this wherever we go in the curling world,” said Kari MacLean. who is one of two members of Team Krista McCarville – the Ontario champions and third-place finishers at the 2009 Olympic Trials – to appear in the calendar.

“Maybe Ashley (Miharija) and I will have a team contest,” said MacLean. “Who can sell more, the blonde or the brunette?”

Proceeds will go to Shoot For A Cure Curling, the sport-focussed fundraising and awareness campaign of the Canadian and American Spinal Research Organizations (CSRO/ASRO).

Shoot For A Cure, which is also supported by the National Hockey League Players’ Association (NHLPA) is committed to finding a cure for spinal paralysis. The campaign also strives to increase awareness of the Paralympic sport of Wheelchair Curling.

The Curling News is the global media authority on the sport of curling. Founded in Canada in 1957, The Curling News publishes six issues during the annual curling season and also leverages itself via multiple online platforms including Facebook and Twitter.

The 2011 Women of Curling are:

December 2010: Colleen Jones, Nova Scotia
January 2011: Ashley Miharija, Ontario
February: Cheryl Bernard, Alberta
March: Chelsea Carey, Manitoba
April: Jill Officer, Manitoba
May: Kari MacLean, Ontario
June: Sarah Wark, British Columbia
July: Andrea Leganchuk, Ontario
August: Trica Affleck, Prince Edward Island
September: Sabrina Shibley, Ontario
October: Kristy Jenion, Manitoba
November: Teri Lake, Nova Scotia
December: Darah Provencal, British Columbia

What are they wearing now, we wondered?

So there we were, logging in to catch the end of the Thomas of Norway challenge match – Olympic silver medallist Thomas Ulsrud versus former teammate Thomas Due – as the Oslo Cup got underway. The media vehicle was trusty LAOLA1 TV, which is webstreaming curling matches all through this weekend’s event, but our first thought was: Geez, It’s Hard To See What Kind Of Pants The Ulsruds Are Wearing, With All That Advertising In The Background.

Then came a closeup… and we couldn’t believe our painful, bleeding eyes.

These pants are two shades of pink, with a touch of green.

How wonderfully, perfectly appalling. Feel free to click on the image (below left) and increase your own level of sweet, visual agony.

This event will also feature a few new team debuts, such as Canada’s Jennifer Jones (now with Kaitlyn Lawes, as first predicted by The Curling News) and Sweden’s new Team Anette Norberg. And the return of a curling titan… M-15, otherwise known as Finland’s 2006 Olympic hero Markku Uusipaavalniemi. Uusis – who is Still Quite Mighty – also appeared at the Baden Masters in Switzerland a couple of weeks ago, so he just might be back on the ice lanes for more than a brief vacation. Stay tuned.

Pain! Wonderful, appalling pain!

We’ve received some notes from fans who miss the more regular postings here at The Curling News Blog. To those who pine for the days of multiple daily postings and lengthy links provided, we share your wistfulness. On one hand, we are still providing a mammoth tonnage of curling links for your enjoyment – nearly 4,000 since last September, in fact – via our Twitter account, and if you aren’t following that vehicle, you are definitely missing out.

On the other hand, it has been quite frustrating to see subscription revenues for The Curling News, our core print product, actually stagnate during and after an otherwise successful Olympic curling season. Sure, of course, the print medium is in decline around the globe. But we are a specialty publisher, with 54 years of branded history behind us, and we feel that all curlers and curling fans should subscribe to the only hardcore, independent, Canadian curling publication that exists.

Call us crazy, call us obstinate… but this is what we believe.

And we would like to think that websurfers, aka rabid consumers of free content, would understand this frustration. If you do, dear reader, then please understand how we have stepped back from the TCN Blog, somewhat, to focus on our core product, which is due to relaunch for year number 55 next month.

If you happen to agree with us, and/or you don’t want to miss all this content we’re talking about, head to our online subscription page. And if you act quickly, you’ll dodge the price increase we are anticipating in the coming days.

Aaaaargh. Our eyes!

The 2011 curling season, if you haven’t noticed, is now underway.

In some ways, that glorious 2010 Olympic season never really ended. After the various world championships wrapped up in early May, the European summer spiels took place… followed by various World Curling Federation camps and clinics… then the regular winter season for Australia and New Zealand, as well as various U.S. summer recreation leagues.

Followed by Canadian summer camps, spiels and leagues… the Great Brazilian Curling Adventure™ right here on this blog (of course)… and now, the “official” fall season.

And there’s lots to watch, too. On Thursday night, CurlingZone launched online webstreamed coverage of the Ontario Curling Tour Championships in Oakville, Ontario utilizing the UStream platform. That first recorded game is archived here, and their live channel coverage (including a chat board) can be found here.

Just a few hours later, on Friday morning in Switzerland, the Baden Masters event kicked off Europe’s Curling Champions Tour. And by the time folks on Canada’s west coast had gone to bed, the new Brad Gushue/Randy Ferbey combination had won their first game of the season, 8-7 over Switzerland’s Dominik Maerki (the Swiss held leads of 3-0 and 5-2 early on).

The second round of play sees Norway’s Thomas Ulsrud taking on Russia’s Andrey Drozdov, with the Olympic silver medallists displaying new lime-green pants worthy of their Loudmouth Golf sponsorship (screen shot above). At this time of writing the match was being streamed live on LAOLA1.tv, with the Russians holding a 3-1 lead after five ends of play.

Some 10 matches will be streamed online during the tournament, including all pre-playoff games scheduled on sheet two. So there you go.

Want more curling, all the time? Make sure you follow The Curling News Twitter feed, with daily postings on The Roaring Game. There was no summer vacation there, trust us!

Cheryl Bernard (left) and her 2010 Olympic silver medallists will battle the boys at the 2011 TSN Curling Skins Game.

Bernard and her Calgary women’s team will take on the Vancouver 2010 Olympic men’s champions from Edmonton, Team Kevin Martin, in one of the two event semifinals played January 22, 2011 at Casino Rama just outside of Barrie, Ontario.

The other semi will feature the 2010 defending champions, Team David Murdoch of Scotland, against the new world men’s champions from Edmonton, Team Kevin Koe. The two semifinal winners will compete in the final on January 23.

The Skins Game is a three-match, made-for-television competition featuring four teams in a unique style of play. Money – a total of $100,000 – is the key to scoring, and teams must either score two or more points with the hammer or steal a point to win a “skin”. The total amount of money earned determines the winner.

All three matches will be televised live in High-Definition on Canada’s TSN (The Sports Network).

“We’ve never had the opportunity to take on such a high calibre of men’s teams so we jumped at the chance to participate in the TSN Curling Skins Game,” said Bernard in a news release. “The venue, format and interaction with the fans will definitely make for a fun weekend of curling. But watch out guys – we are playing to win.”

Team Bernard is only the second women’s team to compete in the Skins Game. Two years ago, Winnipeg’s Team Jennifer Jones battled Glenn Howard at Casino Rama and were crushed, scoring just a single skin over the eight-ends of play.

Bernard’s inclusion means Team Howard will not compete in the 2011 event. Howard, who resides in nearby Midland, has been invited to the three previous Skins Games and enjoys a large local following.

It also guarantees another summer and fall of off-ice debate, regarding the ability of female curlers to compete with their male opponents. Here’s an excerpt of a recent interview between Canwest News and Team Martin third John Morris:

CANWEST: If your team, the men’s Olympic champs, played 100 games against women’s champ Anette Norberg of Sweden, how many would you win?

MORRIS: Oh, I’m going to get myself in trouble for this answer, I bet. I would say 90.

CANWEST: Why such a disparity? Why such dominance by the men?

MORRIS: Well, you can compare it to (the gender difference) in tennis or golf. First of all, the sweepers are a lot better in men’s curling. And being able to throw the rock really hard can be a big weapon. So, the advantage of sweeping and the advantage of throwing the rock harder would be enough to unbalance the scale, I guess.

The Curling News has blogged live from all three previous Curling Skins Games, providing exclusive behind-the-scenes anecdotes and photos. You can catch up on previous coverage via our blog archive, during the months of January in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

After all, you never know what you’re going to see at the Skins Game. Like this.

[Anil Mungal photo copyright 2010 The Curling News. No reproduction is permitted]

Norberg (top) and Team Ostlund (below)

When news of her Olympic team breakup came just two weeks ago, legendary Swedish women’s curling skip Anette Norberg indicated she would stay involved with her sport, and seek to nurture young talent for the future.

Norberg has taken that one step further. The two-time world and two-time defending Olympic women’s champion has formed a new team and will embark on yet another run for gold at Sochi 2014.

Norberg has joined forces with Team Cissi Ostlund, the young Swedes who lost the bronze-medal game at this year’s 2010 Ford World curling championship to hosts Canada, skipped by Jennifer Jones.

Ostlund had lost the 2010 Swedish finals to Team Norberg, but the veterans declined to compete at the worlds, preferring to focus entirely on Vancouver 2010. Ostlund and company, the 2008 world junior silver medallists, did a great job in their first adult worlds appearance and the future clearly beckoned.

But so did Norberg, who despite decades of competition and a jammed trophy case – she’s also captured seven European championship titles in her career – just doesn’t want to quit. Norberg will be 47 in 2014.

“I would like to help build a competitive Swedish team, and these girls are already well on the way,” said Norberg in a statement.

Norberg had spoken to Reuters shortly after her Olympic team breakup and gave hints that her winning confidence is still very high.

“(My team’s retirement) doesn’t really make much difference,” said Norberg at the time. “If I continue playing, I will carry on as before. I still haven’t made a decision about the future, but if I decide to continue I’m sure I can win another gold medal.”

Norberg had also spoken highly of her apparent heirs, telling Svenska Dagbladet that “There is nothing to prevent Cecilia Ostlund from being as good as we are… (if) all four stay together and make the effort required, they have absolute potential and possibility.”

Norberg now joins forces with Ostlund, Sara Carlsson and Lotta Lennartson, the girlfriend of Swedish Olympic men’s skip Niklas Edin, to represent the Karlstad Curling Club. Former Ostlund teammate Anna Domeij has left the squad and will reportedly take a break from high-performance competition.

[Anette Norberg photo by Anil Mungal, copyright The Curling News 2010. Team Ostlund photo by Victoria Times Colonist]

With hundreds of Vancouver 2010 photos pouring in from ace TCN photographer Anil Mungal, this archived pic from 2008 seems an odd one to showcase today.

The truth is, Sweden’s Niklas Edin (middle) played with Team David Murdoch not once, but twice, in the Continental Cup championships of 2007 and 2008. That’s Murdoch third Ewan MacDonald at left, and lead Euan Byers at right. He replaced regular Murdoch second Peter Smith on both of those Canadian event junkets. Played very well, too.

As the world now knows, its Team Sweden which dispatched Great Britain’s defending world champions yesterday in the Olympic tiebreaker, and meets Canada’s Team Kevin Martin in a semifinal later today, at 2pm Pacific time.

This was an epic loss for Murdoch’s men. For much of the fall the team struggled on the ice, particularly from injuries to Smith and Murdoch, and they failed to make the medal round at the European championships, after back-to-back wins in 2007 and 2008.

It was old friend Edin, who two years ago didn’t have a sniff of making it to the Olympics – and who still likes to say that his team is simply building for Sochi 2014 – who took Murdoch’s 20009 Euro title.

Then, the “Scottish Brits” started to turn it around. A qualifying paycheque at a Capital One Grand Slam event was followed up by that popular win at the Casino Rama Skins Game. This made for a great January.

Then it was off to Calgary for pre-Olympic training, on specialty ice made by Olympic ice technician Hans Wuthrich (which resulted in a formal letter being sent to Wuthrich by the Canadian Curling Association) and with special stones actually shipped in from Scotland.

But it was not meant to be. Edin’s young troops manhandled Murdoch in the very first match 10 days ago, and then withstood a strong Scottish comeback yesterday afternoon to pip the lads in the extra end.

And only Murdoch and Byers, the holdovers from the 2006 team at Turin, will be able to say – in time – which Olympic Games feels worse.

Is it winning a bunch in row only to lose your last four games (and a medal) a la Turin, or scrapping back and forth through the round-robin only to lose a chance at the medal round altogether, as happened in Vancouver?

One thing is certain: the CAN-GBR round-robin tilt was a barnburner, and fans may feel deprived of a semifinal barnburner as the Murdoch-Martin history is well known. In contrast, the Canadians have simply mopped the floor with the Swedes in their last two matchups, by scores of 7-3 and 9-1.

No wonder the Canadians are confident.

[CCA photo by Michael Burns]

Olympic curling fans took note when Thomas Dufour‘s French team appeared for this morning’s game against Norway wearing black armbands.

The team reports this is in memory of one of France’s future curling stars, a young woman named Solène Coulet, who died on Saturday, Feb. 20.

The news is shocking, and our heart goes out to her family, teammates and many friends.

Coulot made her debut for France just last season at not one, but two world championships. She first appeared as third stone for her sister Marie at the 2009 World Junior championships at Vancouver in March, one of the test events for these 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Just a month later she again represented France along with her brother, Wilfred, at the World Mixed Doubles at Cortina, Italy in April (photo above).

Her team was scheduled to represent France again at next month’s 2010 World Juniors, in Flims, Switzerland.

UPDATE: The Curling News has now learned that her death is an apparent suicide.

Just a day prior to her death, she wrote on her Facebook page:

Un jour nous prenons conscience que nous avons franchi le point de non-retour, ce moment où l’on ne peut plus revenir en arrière. Ce moment où l’on se rend compte qu’on a laissé passer sa chance…

One day we’ll realize that we passed the point of no return, this moment where one cannot return back. That moment where we realize we missed a chance…

RIP to French national team competitor Solène Coulot, who has left us… at only 20 years of age.

[WCF photo of Wilfred and Solène Coulot by Mario Facchini/Newspower]

Good Olympic morning to you all.

So, we’re one week down and another week to go. What is up with God’s Own Sport? We suggest three things to do, and all involve reading or watching…

• Canadians should consider APTN coverage. The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network is a member of Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, and that means viewers can watch coverage of curling games in the Cree language, as well as in French and English. TCN publisher George Karrys wrote this story last week, which highlighted the coverage being provided by APTN’s English-language crew, pictured at left. Arnold Asham (left) and two-time world champion Al “The Iceman” Hackner (right) have teamed with veteran Keith McMahon to deliver some good commentary and good fun, too.

Says The Iceman:

This a fun learning experience, having never done this kind of commentating before. I have no problem understanding the play, but it’s how to convey that knowledge the right way at the right time that’s tough to get. Being with Arnold is always a blast. Good times.

You can watch CAN vs USA right now (Monday 9am-12pm PT) on either CTV, V or NBC’s USA Network… or online on CTVOlympics.ca… or you can head over to APTN to watch these three fellows commentate on the SWE vs SUI match.

• Follow our most awesome Twitter feed for much, much more. Recent tweets include: some cool videos to watch, including  Jennifer Jones running wild in Vancouver with a TV microphone; a how-to by AP and January’s outdoor curling in Scotland; exclusive photos from the Vancouver Olympic centre; more on Norway’s pants (of course); stories in other languages; great quotes; TV figures and more!

• Here’s a new Sun Media column from gk, attempting to summarize everything that’s happened so far. Nice try, actually!

More later!

[APTN photo by Chantelle Ducharme. Click to view larger.]

You might be wondering… where are our Olympic curling previews?

Admit it. You just might be thinking: how can The Curling News, founded in 1957 and world-reknowned for decades, possibly claim to be number one in terms of All Things Curling™ without publishing the ultimate Olympic curling primer?

We’ve got two answers for you.

First: if you don’t read the actual hard-copy, print edition of The Curling News… you lose. As we have mentioned more than a few times before, the multitude of free content you see on our thousands of blog pages, on our explosive Twitter feed (with stuff added multiple times daily), our Facebook group page and so on is… exactly that: free content… and it’s far from all that we have to offer.

For the complete package, you simply must read the newspaper. There is special, print-only, proprietary info in there. And the February 2010 issue comes with the Olympic curling primer you want.

Second: for the first time in our 53-year history, we have printed stories in a language other than English and French. Joining French in the very special February Olympic issue are team previews in the language of each and every competing nation!

Chinese. Danish. German, for both Germany and Switzerland. Japanese (click image to increase size). Norwegian. Swedish. And even Russian.

In celebration of the Vancouver 2010 curling event – in celebration of international curling’s greatest moment – we now present you with the online version of these international language previews. Simply head to the homepage of our website and click on the special banner indicating Olympic Previews in 9 Languages.

However, if you want to read these previews in English, plus read our previews on teams Canada, Great Britain and the United States, you’ll just have to grab a copy of The Curling News.

And we invite you to click here.

On with the Games!

Here is a first look at Team Canada, men’s version, on the ice at the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

In The Curling News photo at left, skip Kevin Martin (left) and alternate Adam Enright prepare to keep the path clean for John Morris as the first of two practice days winds down.

“Today was about getting used to the building and really getting that Olympic feel,” Martin told CTVOlympics.ca afterwards. “I was here about 10-15 minutes early to take in the building. Every building is different so I wanted to get a feel without playing a game.”

“It was moving really well, at least four and a half feet,” said Martin. “It was mostly moving late and it was pretty finicky with weight.”

While the team eased into things on Sunday, they plan to get in a more structured session on Monday.

“Today was more mechanical for the guys. They were throwing well and getting comfortable,” said Martin. “Tomorrow (Monday), we’ll do more sweeping and game situations.”

[Click on image to increase size. Copyright owned by The Curling News (2010)]