Was a 'Trouser Crisis' to blame for the Norwegians' curling loss?

Was a 'Trouser Crisis' to blame for the Norwegians' curling loss?

Published Feb. 19, 2014 9:34 a.m. ET

Was it a "trouser crisis" that cost the Norwegians their tie-breaker game against Great Britain?  

The Norwegian Olympic Curling Team's Pants' Facebook page (yes, Virginia, a Facebook page devoted to the pants exists. And it is thriving) sent out a red alert Monday night after a Norwegian television channel declared a "Buksekrise" (Google translation: "Trouser Crisis") after learning their curling men did not have a new pair of pants to wear in its Tuesday game against Great Britain. 

The Vancouver silver medalists only brought nine different pairs of wacky curling pants, which captivated the world and put the Norwegian men's curling team on the global map, to Sochi. Nine pairs for the nine different round-robin matches in the Olympic curling competition.

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The team had not counted on a 10th tiebreaker game to make it into the medal rounds. The Norwegians' fashion coordinator (yes, really) Christoffer Svae was quoted as saying they had to re-use a pair.  

So the Norwegians rewore a splatter print last seen during the Norwegian men's 9-8 win against the Russians on Feb. 11. 

But unfortunately, the power of the pants were apparently diminished, as the Norwegians lost to Great Britain in a nailbiter of a game, 6-5. 

"A heartbreaking loss for The Pants," the Facebook site declared. 

One wonders if the outcome would have been different had the Norwegians had another pair of dizzyingly dapper pants in their arsenal. 

H/t to the Washington Post for the story. 

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