Centre of the house: youthful dominance and the creation of curling’s age order

Abstract

Canadian curling, traditionally one of the only nationally celebrated sports to venerate the bodies of old(er) athletes, has shifted its emphasis to the bodies of the young and visibly fit (Allain and Marshall 2018). We argue that this change not only brings curling in line with most other sports, but signals a new alignment with an age order privileging youth in sport. Exploring the performance of curling (via interviews with older men who curl), the institutional apparatus around curling (via Curling Canada annual reports) and the representation of curling (via media coverage of older curlers), we find that all of these facets of the sport evince a sporting age order that displaces the old, positioning them at best as inspirations to youthful (and thus more important) curlers, and at worst as symbols of the decaying relevance of the sport.

Keywords:

• Gender
• age
• curling
• sport
• ageing
• media representation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Team Shuster was the USA men’s curling team at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. They were widely regarded as an underdog, yet they defeated the heavily favoured Team Edin of Sweden to win the gold medal. They received extensive attention in the American media following their victory, framed as ‘everymen’ and ‘a group of dads trying to get away from their families’ in traditional and social media.

2 The ‘Harnden boys’ references brothers from the Canadian men’s Olympic team of 2014. This team was noted for their aggressive play and heavily muscled bodies (see Allain and Marshall 2020).

3 Potwarka and Wilson (2020) found that curlers aged 50–64 years represented the highest age demographic of curlers in Canada (26.14%). They did not report the percentage of curlers older that 64 years but presumably this group is also represented amongst Canadian curlers.

4 New Horizons for Seniors is a Canadian federal government initiative that awards funding to community organizations for projects that improve the lives of seniors. The program focuses on senior volunteerism, engagement and mentorship, social participation and inclusion, and it expands awareness of elder abuse.