Sports
It’s a Curl Thing
For Maureen Brunt, the Olympics are a stone’s throw away.
This past spring, Maureen Brunt x’05 had to ask her professors to allow her to miss a few classes so that her curling team could compete in a tournament. Most did their best to accommodate her, but they didn’t exactly appreciate what Brunt was doing.
When she got back, one professor asked her before a lecture how that “little curling thing” went.
“Oh, well, we won,” Brunt answered. “And now I’m going to the Olympics.”
That’s right — the Olympics. A few weeks after she graduates in December with a degree in English, Brunt will jet off to Torino, Italy, where she will join the U.S. women’s curling team as it competes for a gold medal.
Curling, a five-hundred-year-old sport that originated in Scotland, is kind of like shuffleboard on ice. Team members take turns gliding a large granite stone along a stretch of ice, while teammates use brooms to sweep the ice and guide the stone toward scoring targets. It debuted as a medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, but many people were first introduced to the sport when it was featured heavily during NBC’s twenty-four-hour coverage of the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.
This past spring, Maureen Brunt x’05 had to ask her professors to allow her to miss a few classes so that her curling team could compete in a tournament. Most did their best to accommodate her, but they didn’t exactly appreciate what Brunt was doing.
When she got back, one professor asked her before a lecture how that “little curling thing” went.
“Oh, well, we won,” Brunt answered. “And now I’m going to the Olympics.”
That’s right — the Olympics. A few weeks after she graduates in December with a degree in English, Brunt will jet off to Torino, Italy, where she will join the U.S. women’s curling team as it competes for a gold medal.
Curling, a five-hundred-year-old sport that originated in Scotland, is kind of like shuffleboard on ice. Team members take turns gliding a large granite stone along a stretch of ice, while teammates use brooms to sweep the ice and guide the stone toward scoring targets. It debuted as a medal sport at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, but many people were first introduced to the sport when it was featured heavily during NBC’s twenty-four-hour coverage of the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.
But curling is nothing new to Brunt, a Portage, Wisconsin, native. Her parents, avid curlers themselves, introduced her to the sport when she was six years old, and she has been competing ever since.
These days, however, curling is more than just recreation. Brunt trains as much as any football or basketball player on campus, practicing twenty hours a week. Balancing training with her college coursework has been difficult. Because there are no NCAA-sanctioned curling teams, Brunt had to plead with professors to get time off to compete in tournaments, often completing tests and papers weeks ahead of when they were due. But earning a UW degree was important to her, and so she became a master of multitasking.
“It was not uncommon for me to walk in on Maureen blow-drying her hair with one hand and reading for a class with the other,” says Amber Acker ’05, Brunt’s former roommate. “She uses every second.”
After finishing her degree requirements in August, Brunt moved to Bemidji, Minnesota, to train with her teammates full time and get ready for the Olympics. She will come back to campus in December to formally graduate — and to reunite with the friends she left behind.
These days, however, curling is more than just recreation. Brunt trains as much as any football or basketball player on campus, practicing twenty hours a week. Balancing training with her college coursework has been difficult. Because there are no NCAA-sanctioned curling teams, Brunt had to plead with professors to get time off to compete in tournaments, often completing tests and papers weeks ahead of when they were due. But earning a UW degree was important to her, and so she became a master of multitasking.
“It was not uncommon for me to walk in on Maureen blow-drying her hair with one hand and reading for a class with the other,” says Amber Acker ’05, Brunt’s former roommate. “She uses every second.”
After finishing her degree requirements in August, Brunt moved to Bemidji, Minnesota, to train with her teammates full time and get ready for the Olympics. She will come back to campus in December to formally graduate — and to reunite with the friends she left behind.
“She was like the prom queen of college,” says Acker. “Everyone knows her. Everywhere we went, people would be coming up to talk to her.”
But Acker says that Brunt’s popularity had nothing to do with her status as an elite athlete. “I am sure most of those people didn’t know how great she was at curling until they found out about the Olympics. It is just a testament to what an amazing person she is off the ice,” she says.
Many of Brunt’s friends originally thought of curling as “some crazy sport on ice,” she says. But that is changing. Since the 2002 Olympics, membership in curling clubs has gone up 15 percent, according to USA Curling communications director Rick Patzke. The United States is now home to fifteen thousand curlers and a growing number of supporters.
“We definitely have more fans now,” says Brunt. “More people know about the sport and understand what they see [since] the 2002 Olympics.”
But Acker says that Brunt’s popularity had nothing to do with her status as an elite athlete. “I am sure most of those people didn’t know how great she was at curling until they found out about the Olympics. It is just a testament to what an amazing person she is off the ice,” she says.
Many of Brunt’s friends originally thought of curling as “some crazy sport on ice,” she says. But that is changing. Since the 2002 Olympics, membership in curling clubs has gone up 15 percent, according to USA Curling communications director Rick Patzke. The United States is now home to fifteen thousand curlers and a growing number of supporters.
“We definitely have more fans now,” says Brunt. “More people know about the sport and understand what they see [since] the 2002 Olympics.”
And Patzke thinks that Brunt and her teammates will help the sport’s popularity rise again during the upcoming Winter Games, which take place February 10–26. In the past, U.S. curling teams have featured a lot of people in their thirties and forties. Brunt and teammates Cassie Johnson, Jamie Johnson, and Jessica Schultz, all of whom are in their early twenties, break the mold for a sport that is rarely seen as young and hip. Dubbed the “Curl Girls,” the team’s fresh-faced appeal means it is likely to see plenty of coverage on NBC — or, as Patzke calls it, “Nothing But Curling.”
Although they’re young, the Curl Girls have been competing together for a while. Brunt met the other women when she was sixteen, at a curling camp in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. During her freshman year at UW-Madison, they asked her to join their team, and they began doing well at national and international competitions. Earlier this year, the team took a silver medal at the women’s world championships in Scotland, which has led many to consider the Curl Girls a strong threat to win the country’s first Olympic curling medal.
“They have the killer instinct,” says Patzke.
— Joanna Salmen x’06
Although they’re young, the Curl Girls have been competing together for a while. Brunt met the other women when she was sixteen, at a curling camp in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. During her freshman year at UW-Madison, they asked her to join their team, and they began doing well at national and international competitions. Earlier this year, the team took a silver medal at the women’s world championships in Scotland, which has led many to consider the Curl Girls a strong threat to win the country’s first Olympic curling medal.
“They have the killer instinct,” says Patzke.
— Joanna Salmen x’06
TEAM PLAYER - Joe Thomas
Five things to know about Joe Thomas, a junior offensive lineman for the football Badgers:
- Thomas is a two-sport athlete, competing in both football and track and field. He earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors in football in 2004 and was a second-team All-Big Ten shot putter in track.
- In the shot put, he holds Wisconsin’s indoor record with a throw of sixty-two feet and one-quarter inch.
- Majoring in real estate and urban land economics, Thomas says his favorite piece of real estate is Camp Randall’s turf, particularly after a win such as the nighttime victory over Michigan earlier this year, when it’s full of celebrating Badgers.
- Snack time? When the 295-pound lineman gets the munchies, he usually whips up two frozen pizzas for himself, but even that does not fill him up.
- The Brookfield, Wisconsin, native is also an ardent fisherman. Last summer, he caught a twentypound, thirty-six-inch catfish while fishing at Lake Mendota before a class. It took him thirty minutes to heave in the fish, causing him to be late for class.
Camp Randall Colossus
Enormous ear of corn? Precarious pile of pigskin?
People are making those comparisons — as well as some we can’t print — about the new sculpture outside Camp Randall Stadium. The forty-eight-foot-tall obelisk, installed in November, towers over Regent Street and Breese Terrace, providing a dramatic and controversial entry into the renovated stadium.
Featuring a tall column that morphs into a stack of resin footballs, the sculpture is the work of Donald Lipski ‘70, an acclaimed artist who won a $200,000 commission to create the piece, which he says reflects a modern take on classical obelisks that stood outside ancient temples. “The thought came to me of a pile of footballs, stretching up to the sky,” he says. “Hopefully, people will make their own metaphors. Maybe they’ll see a striving to get to the top.”
We’ve heard many fans say that they’d rather see a statue of a Badger legend such as Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch x’42. But others like that the piece flouts convention and looks to the future, rather than the past. All we know for sure is that if the point of public art is to provoke discussion, then Lipski’s obelisk is a big inner.
— Staff
People are making those comparisons — as well as some we can’t print — about the new sculpture outside Camp Randall Stadium. The forty-eight-foot-tall obelisk, installed in November, towers over Regent Street and Breese Terrace, providing a dramatic and controversial entry into the renovated stadium.
Featuring a tall column that morphs into a stack of resin footballs, the sculpture is the work of Donald Lipski ‘70, an acclaimed artist who won a $200,000 commission to create the piece, which he says reflects a modern take on classical obelisks that stood outside ancient temples. “The thought came to me of a pile of footballs, stretching up to the sky,” he says. “Hopefully, people will make their own metaphors. Maybe they’ll see a striving to get to the top.”
We’ve heard many fans say that they’d rather see a statue of a Badger legend such as Elroy “Crazylegs” Hirsch x’42. But others like that the piece flouts convention and looks to the future, rather than the past. All we know for sure is that if the point of public art is to provoke discussion, then Lipski’s obelisk is a big inner.
— Staff
IN SEASON - Men’s Hockey
How’s this for frozen tundra? For the Badgers’ February 11 contest against Ohio State, Green Bay’s famous Lambeau Field will be covered by a portable ice rink to host just the second outdoor hockey match in major-college history. And if that’s not enough excitement for Wisconsin hockey fans, Milwaukee’s Bradley Center will host the 2006 NCAA Frozen Four.
Circle the dates: December 30–31, Badger Hockey Showdown, Kohl Center; January 27–28, UW hosts conference rival Minnesota; April 6–8, Frozen Four, Milwaukee.
Keep an eye on: Senior Adam Burish, junior Robbie Earl, and sophomore Joe Pavelski, who form the UW’s most potent goal-scoring line.
Think about this: If you’re one of the forty thousand fans who have a ticket for the Frozen Tundra Classic, be advised: the average temperature in Green Bay for February is a chilly 19 degrees. Enjoy intermission.
Circle the dates: December 30–31, Badger Hockey Showdown, Kohl Center; January 27–28, UW hosts conference rival Minnesota; April 6–8, Frozen Four, Milwaukee.
Keep an eye on: Senior Adam Burish, junior Robbie Earl, and sophomore Joe Pavelski, who form the UW’s most potent goal-scoring line.
Think about this: If you’re one of the forty thousand fans who have a ticket for the Frozen Tundra Classic, be advised: the average temperature in Green Bay for February is a chilly 19 degrees. Enjoy intermission.
Badger Ticker
For the third year in a row, Simon Bairu x’06 is the Big Ten’s best cross-country runner. Bairu won the conference championship race to pace the Badgers, ranked second nationally, to their seventh consecutive Big Ten title. UW runners finished in five of the top six positions en route to a record-breaking eighty-five-point victory.
Senior Amy Vermeulen scored six goals in three games to lead the UW women’s soccer team to its first Big Ten tournament title since 1994. After finishing the regular season in seventh place in the conference, the Badgers upset three teams to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA championship tournament.
Former Wisconsin rowers Beau Hoopman and Paul Daniels won gold medals at the 2005 FISA World Rowing Championships in September. Hoopman and Daniels rowed with the U.S. men’s eight, which outpaced crews from Italy and Germany to take the championship. Hoopman, who now owns gold medals from the world championships, the Pan American Games, and the 2004 Olympic Games, was also part of the American straight four crew, which finished fifth in the finals.
Senior Amy Vermeulen scored six goals in three games to lead the UW women’s soccer team to its first Big Ten tournament title since 1994. After finishing the regular season in seventh place in the conference, the Badgers upset three teams to earn an automatic berth in the NCAA championship tournament.
Former Wisconsin rowers Beau Hoopman and Paul Daniels won gold medals at the 2005 FISA World Rowing Championships in September. Hoopman and Daniels rowed with the U.S. men’s eight, which outpaced crews from Italy and Germany to take the championship. Hoopman, who now owns gold medals from the world championships, the Pan American Games, and the 2004 Olympic Games, was also part of the American straight four crew, which finished fifth in the finals.
