What's up with curling?

Ever heard about curling? Neither had I, until the 2002 olympics...

During the winter olympics in Salt Lake City, the Norwegian interest for curling skyrocketed. That Norway's men's team took the gold probably explains most of the interest, but heaps of people actually followed every curling game during the olympics.

But where are the curling people outside of the olympics? You never hear from them, you don't see them walking around your neighbourhood, and there are no curling events announced in the local newspaper. I think we are witnessing some kind of conspiracy here. After the olympics are over, the curling people go into hibernation, and then they are thawed for the next olympics. Because you neveer see the curling people and never hear about their sport, the few people actually competing are far too valuable to be allowed to roam around between competitions. So we freeze them in order to make them live forever and win gold upon gold for the glory of our nation.

Or it could be that noone really cares about curling outside of the olympics, and so we just don't bother to find out what's happening... But I think the hibernation theory is far more likely.