Boorish Canadians Make Our Favorite Curler Cry

The host nation's medal count is always higher than normal for a reason: the screaming crowds that psych up the natives, and psych out the visitors. But now they've gone too far; they've made Maddy cry.

Madeleine Dupont, topless Dane skip extraordinaire, had two chances to put away the unbeaten Canadians Friday night, and she missed them both. Both times, the partisan crowd was carrying on, stomping and cheering through her shot. And you see, in curling, that's simply not done.

A gentleman's game, curling stones are generally thrown with complete silence. Though that might be a byproduct of curling matches not having any fans in attendance. But not this time. Because it's one of the few sports in which Canadians are likely to end up on the podium, or because the hours of down time leave nothing to do but drink, the Vancouver curling crowds have been notably rowdy.

I could not control the weight on the last shot in the 10th," said an obviously upset Dupont after the game, wiping away a tear. "It should have been way slower but when there are 6,000 people yelling it's pretty hard to find out how hard you kick off. It's just so hard to focus. You're trying but it's just not the same as if it was silent."

Heck, even the Canadian skip agreed, and said it wasn't particularly fair to other teams.

I'm of two minds about it. On one hand, it's an ancient sport, and silence has always been the norm. It's what the players are used to.

But then it's odd that some sports encourage crowd noise, while others forbid it. Why do golfers get complete silence, while baseball players, who require just as much if not more concentration, have to play through a racket? In golf, the damn ball is just sitting there.

And, on the first hand again...YOU MONSTERS BROUGHT OUR DEAR MADDY TO TEARS.

Raucous crowd draws tears from Danish skip [Globe And Mail]