Nude curling calendar - Printable Version

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Nude curling calendar - chancellor - 10-31-2005

I guess this is one way to increase exposure to the sport


http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Curling/2005/10/31/1286939-cp.html

[quote]Curlers bare all

Calendar featuring nude female curlers certain to give sport new exposure
By BILL GRAVELAND



Austrian national team skip Claudia Toth in the Curling calendar. (CP handout photo)
(CP) - Women's curling is sure to receive a lot more exposure this year, thanks to a new international calendar that features nude and scantily clad female curlers.

The calendar is the brainchild of Ana Arce, a photographer who skipped the Andorran women's team for three seasons before moving to Spain this year.

"I think it's going to change the image of the sport which is not so nice," Arce, who also poses in the calendar, told The Canadian Press. "I've been playing for eight years and there are so many beautiful girls playing and nobody knows it.

"I doubt that anyone is going to be shocked and everybody's going to enjoy that and like it."

All proceeds will be split between the teams of the curlers who pose in the calendar, called the Ana Arce Team Sponsorship Calendar 2006.


Arce contacted only women she knew personally through her years in curling, including two Canadians: Melanie Robillard of Ottawa and Lynsay Ryan of Kelowna, B.C., the daughter of two-time world champion skip and 2006 Olympic hopeful Pat Ryan.

Ryan, a 21-year-old student at Hamilton's McMaster University, found herself in July posing in a see-through sarong in the forests of Fussen, Germany.

"I sent him (her father) an e-mail," Ryan said with a laugh. "I thought it might be better if he read about it and had time to think about it before he replied."

Arce met Lynsay Ryan at a curling clinic in Germany and was surprised the Canadian agreed to be part of it.

"I thought she was going to say no because being Canadian I know it's more difficult," she said. "I think things are different for European girls.

"We are more open here - a little less shy I think. But she said yes and she just wanted to check the pictures and everything was OK."

The 12 models represent curling teams from Denmark, Italy, Spain, England, Poland, Germany and Canada.

"Some of the girls showed a little bit more, like breasts, because they wanted to," Arce said of the black-white photos. "But it is very, very tasteful."

The calendar isn't the first of its kind. The Canadian women's rugby, water polo and cross-country ski teams all have produced similar calendars. On the men's front, there has been beefcake calendars from the men of Australian Rules Football and the Stade Francais rugby team in Paris.

Some prominent Canadian female curlers had no problem with the calendar but weren't interested in participating.

"I couldn't, I'm too shy," said Jennifer Jones, the defending Scott Tournament of Hearts champion from Winnipeg. "It's very European.

"If the right people want to do it I think it's kind of a fun idea and innovative and hopefully it will get curling some publicity."

News of the calendar, which will cost about $25 Cdn, came a little bit close to home for former Canadian champion Cathy King.

"Somebody came up to our team just last week and said we should do one of those," she said with a chuckle. "I started laughing and said you three go ahead. I'm not doing it.

"I said to our friend who suggested it: 'Get lost, not a chance."'

It's not the first time the idea of nudity and curling has hit the news. In April 2004, former world champion Colleen Jones lamented the problem of getting publicity for women's curling with plans to split the men's and women's championships into separate events.

"I think the women are going to have to curl naked in order to get people out there," she said at the time. "I'm not kidding.

"You're going to have to hope for an Anna Kournikova to come along to really jazz it up."

The calendar does just that for the sport, said Arce.

"This proves that curlers are athletes," she said. "Strong but graceful, and of course very beautiful."

News about the calendar seemed to catch Jones off guard Monday.

"Those words were very prophetic don't you think?," said the six-time Canadian champion, who noted finding a way to compete in countries where curling is not popular can be a serious challenge.

"There's a part of me that can say if you thought it was going to cover the cost of your season than maybe you'd do the same thing and become Miss January," she said. "Image and sex appeal in women's sport are still very much how many women athletes are popularized."

Included in the calendar is Austrian skip Claudia Toth, who previously said no to the German edition of Playboy.

"I loved the whole idea behind it," said Toth. "It seems like one of the very few possibilities to make curling more popular in Europe - especially Austria."

Anything that brings attention to the sport is a good idea, said defending world and Brier champion Randy Ferbey of Edmonton.

"Good for them," he said. "Anytime you bring publicity to the sport is good. Every other sport has done it.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with it and I'll definitely have a look to see if I know anybody in there. It's just something fun to talk about over a few drinks."

The fact that his former teammate Pat Ryan's daughter is included in the calendar wasn't lost on Ferbey.

"Obviously I can bug Pat about that now a little bit," he said. "I'll probably put her picture up on the wall somewhere in the locker-room."

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