How Many Ends Are There In Curling? Winter Olympics Rules Explained

The Winter Olympic Games 2022 have recently begun in Beijing, and onlookers can’t seem to get enough of curling. 

The competitive game sees athletes using brooms to propel large puck-like objects across the ice, while the sport is dominating the Olympics with a whopping 19 days on the schedule. 

Curling itself has been a part of the official list of winter sports since 1998, when the International Olympic Committee added the game prior to the Winter Games that year.

However, some viewers can’t seem to wrap their head around how many ends there are in the game. So, here’s all the info you need to know about curling.

The Winter Olympic Games 2022 have recently begun in Beijing, and onlookers can’t seem to get enough of curling (LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP via Getty Images)

How do you play curling?

In curling, there are four players on each team who take turns in carrying out the specific jobs: delivering the rock (the granite stone), sweeping and setting the house (the target). 

The house, which resembles a bull’s-eye, is at the other end of the ice sheet to the players, while the “button” is formed at the centre of the target.

How many ends are there in curling?

Each curling match plays across 10 ends. During each end, eight rocks are thrown per team, so 16 rocks altogether. 

However, only one team can score a point in each end. The team that delivers the rock closest to the “button” wins the point once all 16 rocks have been thrown. But if that team gets two or more rocks closest to the button, they win the correlating amount of points.