It doesn't appear as if the power of the crazy pants will be enough to help the Norwegian Paralympic curling team.
One day after telling The Associated Press they were wearing loud blue plaid pants because the original red, white and blue diamond-checkered pattern Norway's Olympians wore so famously had sold out, the Paralympic team got their own set.
``That's why,'' skip Rune Lorentsen said of stories published after he called the blue pants ``leftovers'' on Monday. ``The firm that makes then called and said, `Now we have them. You want them?' Everybody loves them so we have to love them also.
Norway's Olympic team's trousers were so popular they had a Facebook page dedicated to them - the pants, not the players - and it now has more than 630,000 fans signed up. The team even presented a pair to Norwegian King Harald, but they haven't brought the wheelchair team the same results their Olympic counterparts enjoyed before losing to Canada in the gold-medal match.
Lorentsen did pound Japan 11-3 in his first game sporting the original look, but lost 9-8 to the U.S. on Wednesday afternoon when his last shot came up 2 inches short of forcing extra ends, and lost 9-7 to Italy in the evening match.
That dropped Norway, which won gold at the wheelchair world championships in 2007 and 2008, into seventh place at 3-5, with one game left. With only the top-four teams making the playoffs, Lorentsen must win his last game Thursday, get help from several other teams, and then advance in a tiebreaker game. It's a lot more likely Norway - and the pants - are down to their last game.
``We'll fight to the end,'' Lorentsen said.
Things are looking decidedly better for the other team in red, white and blue.
The Americans were alone in second at 6-2 and guaranteed to play for a medal after beating Japan 8-3 Wednesday night. A win over the last-place Swiss on Thursday would lock up a top-two finish and ensure the Americans don't face Canada, which beat them 10-5 on the opening day, in the semifinals.
``We're playing well but still not exactly where we want,'' U.S. skip Augusto Perez. ``We've got to polish a few mistakes, but overall we're shooting well.''
The 37-year-old Perez came to the United States from Spain to play college soccer and stayed. Since losing a leg during three battles with cancer, he has listened to the American anthem twice with a gold medal around his neck after winning world championships in outrigger canoeing.
He wants to hear it again as a curler.
``I fell in love with the country, the people, and I m extremely proud to be a naturalized citizen, to represent the U.S. and to have the national anthem played for me is phenomenal,'' said Perez, who said he lost his leg July 4, 2003, and became a citizen that September. ``I tell people they usually charge an arm and a leg, but I got a discount. They only charged me for the leg.''
Perez, a teacher specializing in students with developmental disabilities, has played a variety of sports since losing his leg, but fell in love with curling after watching it on TV.
``It has strategy just like in a soccer game,'' said Perez, who at one point was given a 30 percent chance of surviving. ``You have to have finesse, just like a soccer player. You have team dynamics and competition.''
