It’s been almost three years since The Pants were retired, along with that particular lineup of Norwegian men’s curlers led by Thomas Ulsrud.
Important anniversaries are celebrated.
Many still long to see crazy curling pants on the ice. Rylan Kleiter’s team from Saskatchewan are one of the few who keep the fire burning.
On Facebook, the official Norwegian Olympic Curling Team’s Pants page still has a stunning 450,000 followers.
But now curling fans are being teased. Directly, to our face. By the current Norwegian Olympic men’s curling team, no less.
Steffen Walstad’s crew do not wear the pants. They didn’t wear them when they challenged Ulsrud for Norwegian curling supremacy. They didn’t wear them when they finally won that challenge, and started representing Norway at European and world championships. They didn’t even wear them when Ulsrud played with Walstad, nor when Ulsrud was replaced by his former third Torger Nergaard, on the current team now in Beijing.
But now we have training photos of Team Walstad, taken before they flew out to Beijing, and posted to the team’s Facebook page. Except now we can’t find those pics. Luckily we saved them.
So, is this a tease? Or are they actually going to unveil gloriously hideous pants tomorrow at the Olympic Winter Games?
While you’re here … we think you should watch this video the team put together. It’s brilliant (even with normal, black, disgusting pants). Walstad is an excellent content creator who helped a design agency place highly in a worldwide creative contest, and his video skills are obvious. Enjoy.
The Norwegians—Walstad, Nergaard, Markus Hoiberg, Magnus Vaagberg and mixed doubles silver medallist Magnus Nedregotten—take on hosts China in draw one of men’s play on Wednesday evening (Beijing time).