By Adam Laskaris
When many casual fans think of curling, they likely think of a memorable fashion choice coming out of Vancouver 2010.
Those Winter Olympics were famous for many things, but perhaps no more fun than the checkered pants worn by the eventual men’s silver medallist Norway, who brought the look back in 2014 and 2018. Facebook pages, memes, and front-page stories about the pants were everywhere, with the uniform becoming a global phenomenon.
And some sixteen years since their debut, a new generation of Norwegian curlers are doing their best to pay tribute to a rink they grew up watching, pulling out a pair of patterned pants for the first time in their career on Tuesday at the Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games.
“Every time everyone asks, ‘where are the pants?’” Norwegian Olympic curler Martin Sesaker said.
But the decision to wear a bit of fun attire wasn’t exactly an easy one.
Norwegian curler Thomas Ulsrud, who skipped the famous pants-wearing team, passed away in 2022 due to a battle with cancer. A pair of his teammates — Torger Nergård, Markus Høiberg — were on the 2022 Olympic team, which wore plain black pants.
And so that left the decision a challenging one for the most recent iteration of the team.
"When we qualified for the Olympics, it was always in the back of our minds: ‘oh, we should really bring the pants.’ We had that discussion and kind of came to the conclusion that, well, it was Team Ulsrud’s thing. It was their thing. We should try to make our own,” 2026 Norwegian skip Magnus Ramsfjell said.
“The curling pants have been a legend, especially for that team,” Sesaker said.
But eventually the first-time Olympic rink decided that the pants could be a lovely tribute as a one-time appearance, opting to wear a patterned set of bottoms for their game against Niklas Edin’s Swedish rink.
“We asked [Ulsrud’s teammates], and they said, 'of course, if you want to go for it, go for it,” Ramsfjell explianed. "It's something about curling being a bit silly, and then people showing up looking a bit silly. I feel like it's a perfect synergy.”
Norway’s curlers picked the Sweden match to wear the pants due to the fact that Edin and Ulsrud had many memorable battles over the years, including the 2014 men’s world championship final where the Norwegians came out on top, the country’s only gold medal at that event since 1988.
"Thomas was an incredible guy, incredible curler. Just the passion for curling and the passion for just everything he was interested in is something that I wish everyone can try to carry forward. Just his energy in general, just fantastic, fun and an amazing curler," Ramsfjell said.
"He was a very open-minded guy and spoke with everyone, and very down to earth when speaking with the juniors when we were juniors," Sesaker added.
The Norwegians admitted that while they made a few modifications, the patterned look still isn’t quite something they’re used to curling in due to the fit, and plan to likely just make it a one-time tribute.
"Me personally, I would prefer not to do it, but maybe if it's super popular, and it's just the right move to do... It could be very profitable,” Ramsfjell said.
Photos by Anil Mungal/TCG
