Thanks to saturation coverage of the Winter Olympics, I now know several more things about Danish curling skip Madeleine Dupont than I did a couple weeks ago:
1. That she exists.
2. That she has a sister who is also Danish and blonde.
3. That she has a mole on the side of her breast.
4. That she tends to crumble when 6,000 Canadians start yelling at her.
Apparently, someone forgot to tutor the new Canadian curling fans on proper curling fan etiquette, which calls for inside voices at all times. Some might be able to tune all that noise out, but not Madeleine Dupont, who missed two game-winning shots thanks in part to the din generated by so many Canadians jacked up on beer and mindless nationalism. “I could not control the weight on the last shot in the 10th,” Dupont pouted after losing to Canada 5-4. “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.”
In the name of fair play, Canadian curling fans should henceforth imagine that they are not at an Olympic curling match at all but a New Jersey Nets game. That’s a quiet that could chill the soul.
