Curling, the ice sport with brooms, is roiled in controversy over — what else? — the brooms.
Having evolved in recent years from its beer-drinking, chain-smoking, down-at-the-local-club roots, the friendly sport of curling suddenly has a debate on its hands that in some quarters has seen the civility, and even some gloves, dropped.
The use of so-called directional fabric in broom pads is the latest escalation in an arms race among manufacturers, whereby the world’s best curlers could guide the 44-pound stone around a sheet of ice as if it were controlled by a joystick.
Concerned that it just was not curling anymore, many of the sport’s top athletes, but not all of them, signed an agreement last month not to use the newest brooms.