Olympic Coverage With Fred Roggin, The Voice Of Curling

Are you ready for this year's Winter Olympics?!

If you aren't, you have some catching up to do, because they've already started!

The opening ceremonies were this morning at 3 a.m., but you can watch the replay tonight at 8 on NBC.

NBC4 and AM570 LA Sports' Fred Roggin, a.k.a. The Voice of Curling, is out in Stamford, Connecticut at the NBC Sports Group's International Broadcast Center for the duration of the games.

Along with being the host of curling, Fred will host "The Olympic Zone" every Monday through Saturday at 4:30 p.m. on NBC.

If you weren't really that into curling this year, you better start, because the competition is already overflowing with drama!

GANGNEUNG, South Korea (AP) — In a sport known for its politeness, the sight of American curlers Matt and Becca Hamilton banging their brooms against the Olympic ice in frustration was a bit of a rarity. But then so was the manner in which they lost the game.

Despite holding a 4-3 lead heading into the final end, or round, of curling’s mixed doubles match Friday, the United States lost 9-4 to reigning world champion Switzerland after the Swiss managed something exceedingly unusual in curling: a perfect score known as a six-ender. How rare is a six-ender? Think of a perfect game in baseball.

First, a bit of a primer: Mixed doubles curling, which is making its Olympic debut in Pyeongchang, has different rules to standard curling. There are just two players on each team — a man and a woman — as opposed to four. There are eight ends instead of 10. And each team throws six rocks in each end instead of eight.

Although Switzerland was behind by one point going into the final end, Jenny Perret and Martin Rios had an advantage known as the hammer — the right to throw the final stone of the game. They managed to get their first five stones into the house, putting the Americans in a precarious position.

Becca Hamilton threw her final rock, which needed to get to the button — the center of the bull’s eye-shaped target — in order to preserve their lead. “Hard, hurry, hurry!” she screamed at her brother, Matt, who was frantically sweeping the ice in a bid to get the stone to the right spot. “You gotta go, go, go, go, go!!” She then raced ahead and joined in the sweeping frenzy as the rock drew close to the button.

It was not to be. The stone ended up a few inches past its target, prompting the disappointed siblings to slam their brooms against the ice. Switzerland promptly knocked the Americans’ lone rock out of the house and kept all six of their stones within the target’s rings, giving them that rare and coveted six-ender.

Read the full story at Associated Press


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