Sorry, Canada

by wjw on February 25, 2018

From left, United States' curling team Joe Polo, John Landsteiner Matt Hamilton, Tyler George and skip John Shuster smiles after receiving their gold medals after awarding ceremonies in their men's curling finals match against Sweden at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Gangneung, South Korea, Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) ORG XMIT: OLYCU123

So John Shuster and his buddies went on to win gold in the Greatest Ever Winter Sport, which is to say curling.

The US has never won gold in curling before, but taking 5 points in a single end pretty well speaks for itself.

On the other hand, Canada has never lost a medal in curling before.   This is deeply strange, but then the Strange Winds have been blowing for a while.

And incidentally, all of these guys live within about 50 miles of my birthplace.  Go, Team Minnesota!

In addition to Greater Duluth coining the curling gold, Minnesota put seven women on the gold-winning hockey team, plus Lindsay Vonn who won bronze on the downhill, Jessie Diggins who helped the team win gold in cross-country skiing (another first for the US), and the little village of Warroad has put eight hockey players on Olympic teams since 1960, all but one of which won gold.

I feel like celebrating, so here’s Gjallarhorn doing some awesome Ostrobothnian soul music.


 

 

 

Steinar Bang February 25, 2018 at 4:55 am

Hm… fresh mix of cultural references there… vocals in Finnish, a band name from Norse Mythology (Gjallarhorn, both the name of the horn that Heimdall (the guard of the rainbow bridge Bifrost that stretches from Valhalla to Midgarðr) will blow in on Ragnarokr, and the name of the drinking horn Mimir uses to drink the water of wisdom), a Saami spirit drum flashed past in an image, and I could swear there was a digiridoo in there…

Shash February 25, 2018 at 11:21 am

Wow. Celebration indeed! Thanks for sharing. And Yay Duluth!

wjw February 25, 2018 at 2:30 pm

Steinar, Gjallarhorn is a Finnish band of ethnic Swedes from Ostrobothnia. They had a didgeridoo player until he left, and was replaced by a guy who plays contra bass recorder, which looks as if you can buy it kit form from Ikea, but which has a similar sound.

Mix and mashup for XXI century folk! Clearly we are done with purity.

Ralf T. Dog February 26, 2018 at 10:29 pm

Curling is strange enough; No winds needed. I would call it voodoo, but black magic is tame by comparison.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/02/0223_060223_curling_2.html

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