Today's Article

"It's 1exhilarating because it's just really fun to do something that's not typical. A lot of my friends didn't know what curling was."

Liz Greenland is one of the newest members of the Granite Curling Club in North Seattle.

It's been around for more than 70 years, 2recognized as the fourth-largest curling club in the country and the only facility in the state 3dedicated to the sport.

"Chess on ice or 4bocce or a little bit of 5backgammon on ice. I find your whole body for any age, whether you're 20, 30, or we have 80-year-olds playing, and you can all play together."

Liz picked up the 6roaring game last fall, looking to try something different and meet new friends.

And thanks to the Winter Olympics, others see this as the 7golden opportunity to try out curling.

"It's just a 8neat experience. It's something that you've kind of seen on TV. You don't really know how to do."

Cheryl Crandall runs group events at the club. She says every time the Olympics roll around, curling 9fever 10hits hard.

In 2022, membership 11spiked, welcoming 180 new members, double a typical year.

Now that trend is expected to hit again with more people stepping on the ice.

"We are still kind of just at the beginning of our Olympic 12bubble, but our events and our ‘Learn to Curl’ and our 'Try Curling' events have increased by 13threefold from last year. So it's a pretty big increase. A lot of people are excited to come out and curl, and we're really excited to have them."