Norway's curlers wear funky pants at the Winter Olympics in a "one-time" tribute

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — Norway's curlers were back wearing their funky pants at the Winter Olympics on Tuesday — but it might be a one-off.

The men's team's donned bold, diamond-printed trousers for its 7-4 loss to Sweden at Cortina Curling Center as a tribute to former Norway skip Thomas Ulsrud, who was part of the team that famously wore similarly outlandish attire at Winter Games in 2010, 2014 and 2018 in a break with tradition in a typically staid sport.

Ulsrud died of cancer in 2022.

“We thought one game honoring the old team and wearing the full Norwegian outfit there on the ice would be just amazing,” Norway skip Magnus Ramsfjell said.

“Thomas was an incredible guy, an incredible curler, and just a passion for curling and a passion for just everything I was interested in.”

Norway's crazy curling pants first attracted attention at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver and they went viral, with even the Norwegian monarch, King Harald V, receiving a pair. They — the pants, not the curlers — quickly had a Facebook page that attracted nearly 700,000 followers.

Team Ulsrud wore them again for the following two Olympics.

This year's Norwegian team had worn classic curling pants previously in the men’s competition, and they'll likely do so again for their remaining matches. Norway is tied for third place with two round-robin games left in its bid to finish in top four and reach the semifinals.

“We haven't played in these too much, so we aren't super-comfortable in them,” Norway curler Martin Sesaker said. "It was always meant to be a tribute, just a one-time thing.

“We have to do a discussion tonight and see if we are going to play the next couple of games with them. But most likely we're going back to the black pants that we're used to.”

Ramsfjell said his team has just one set of funky pants, calling them the “originals they played with in Vancouver."

The team has talked about starting its own brand of trousers to get sponsorship and also bring more attention to curling.

“Then again, it was kind of their thing,” Ramsfjell said of Ulsrud's team, "and I feel like it would be a bit taking what they earned and then taking it for ourselves. So, 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.”

___

AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics