GOLDEN, Colo. — The opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Beijing is on Feb. 4, 2022 -- six months from now.
No doubt, you know one person who believes they could medal in one Winter Olympic sport if they wanted.
"This, for our age, at least for some of us our age, this is our only hope at the Olympics. The other sports were past our prime," said David Mozell, amateur curler.
Mozell, a burglary and robbery detective for Lakewood Police, spent an August summer night in the chill of the Denver Curling Center in Golden.
"With our work, we were driving back and forth on Sixth Avenue, and one day we saw a bunch of cars outside, and we said, 'we've never been to the curling center,'" said Mozell. "I've done two full seasons, and by no means I’m very good. You're learning all the time."
"The downtime should be summer and here we are," said Nancy Maule, Vice President of Events and Curling for the Denver Curling Club. "We sold out in our instructional mini-leagues in about 90 minutes."
The Curling Center is normally closed in the summer, but after COVID, the center was kept open for the first time since it was opened in 2014.
"Look, we're a Wednesday night in the summer, when people could be out hiking, or having a margarita on their deck and they're in here wanting to curl," said Maule.
If curling is the Winter Olympic sport that anyone thinks they can do, what's the Summer Olympic version?
"The summer Olympics version of curling…" said Denver Curling Club instructor Perri Cunningham
"Oh, my gosh. Man, that is a tough one," said Maule. "Communication-wise, volleyball comes to mind," said Maule.
"Beach volleyball because I like beach volleyball, and because there's strategy to it," said Cunningham. "And you have to kind of make the call split-second, so sometimes we have to make the call split-second on this."
"Um, archery," said Mozell.
"Badminton," Maule said. Not table tennis, the way they play, that's for sure."
After this summer practice, Mozell, the burglary and robbery detective, may not be able to steal an Olympic spot.
"Based on our overall performance, probably not, but it's still good to dream," said Mozell.
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