But what is it? The question circulated around the world in those days in 1998 when curling made its Olympic debut in Nagano. In the meantime, the sports lover knows what it’s all about: players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles.

But that’s the technical description. What many spectators might say is “the pants!”. And when they say “the pants” they are referring to the eccentric clothing of the Norwegian curling team. It was Thomas Ulsrud who started the trend at Vancouver 2010, and the trend continued at subsequent Games.

For tennis fans, the curling pants were reminiscent of Bud Collins, legendary racquet journalist. Garish colors, flowers, diamonds, checkered style, bold designs. All against the backdrop of the white ice as a perfect contrast.

And so the Games went on. The insiders, and a few occasional spectators, knew that every four years, in February, curling would surprise them. It was the rare case of a sport that transcended by the clothes of its protagonists rather than by the sport itself. A legitimate marketing move, nothing to say.

Until Beijing 2022 came along. The Norwegian team excited its fans at the end of January with a message on facebook: “We’re counting down the days, and so is our wardrobe it seems”.

And then came February, and then came the debut.

And then Norway showed up wearing pants... dark blue. The nearly half a million followers on the facebook page “The Norwegian Olympic Curling Team’s Pants” were sorely disappointed.

Perhaps they shouldn’t be surprised: this is a new team, with Ulsrud and his teammates retiring in 2019.

Curling, however, arouses attention in remote corners of China. Without access to the granite from a Scottish island from which the ice-sliding stones are made, a man in Inner Mongolia found a good alternative: perfect, gleaming polished ice stones that he skillfully slides across... the ice.

A better alternative than the very heterodox ones that circulated on Chinese social networks: from sliding pots to competing with buckets with a dog inside.