Matching pants: Norwegian curlers rock the house

SWIFT CURRENT, Saskatchewan — The men aren't the only ones wearing the pants in the Norwegian curling family. At the women's world championships, Norway's team broke out an even louder version of the trousers that made their male counterparts cult heroes at the Vancouver Olympics: large dots in a broad palette of colors. The Norwegians let the golfwear company that supplies the pants surprise them with the choice of pattern. Skip Linn Githmark said one of the players was "laughing her brains out" when the team opened the package from the aptly named Loudmouth company upon arriving in Swift Current. The foursome debuted the slacks during Sunday's televised game against host Canada, though the flashy attire could not prevent an 8-3 loss. The women have more conservative pants from a curling sponsor to go with their white shirts, but they'll wear the multicolored ones at the world championships with their red tops. Githmark, Henriette Lovar, Ingrid Stensrud and Kristin Skaslien wore the screamingly loud pants to acknowledge Loudmouth's contribution. One of the four pairs of pants came in a men's extra-large, though, and had to be taken to a local tailor. "They just sent us whatever they had — what they thought would match," Githmark said. "I like the colors. They're man's pants, you can see that. It's kind of big, but it's very, very comfortable." Thomas Ulsrud's team, which lost in the Olympic final to Canada's Kevin Martin, wore red, white and blue diamonds. Norway's curling teams at the Paralympics showed up wearing teal green, blue, black and white plaid pants, also supplied by Loudmouth. "I normally wear kind of flashy clothes, stockings whatever," Githmark said. "I never dress in pitch black." Githmark said Norway will wear another version of the pants at the world men's curling championships in Italy next month. "In Europe, curling is seen as kind of dull. Like, you like books if you play curling," Githmark said. "When you do something that creates attention in life (with) colors, (you) have fun." – AP