Curling, much like hockey, has been adopted as a Canadian national game. While its roots are Scottish, curling has a strong foothold with our neighbors to the north. Since its introduction during the 1988 Calgary games as a demonstration sport and in 1998 at Nagano as an official event, Canada has been the only country where men’s and women’s curling teams have medaled in every Olympics.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, curlers from the United States hold just one Olympic medal: a bronze for the men’s team during the 2006 Turin, Italy, games. The women’s team has never medaled in the sport. This year, Nicole Joraanstad, a native of Kent, and the U.S. women’s curling team have their sights set on changing that.

“The team is focused around getting to the top of the podium,” Joraanstad said during a phone interview days after the women’s team returned from a trip to Switzerland and Scotland for tournaments and training prior to the Games. “You never know if you’re going back, so you want to make the most of it.”

The Kentridge High School graduate got her start in the sport of curling in junior high at the age of 15. Her father, Gary, was a member of the national curling team during the 1980s and regularly played at the Granite Curling Club, located in North Seattle. Joraanstad started playing at the club, eventually making the U.S. Junior National team in 1996, just a year after she started. She gave up other athletic pursuits, like basketball, track and fastpitch in high school to focus on curling.

By the time she graduated from high school, the teen already had several junior national medals under her belt, including silvers in 1997 and 1999, and bronze in 1998. Knowing that if she wanted to really pursue the sport she’d have to head somewhere with more opportunities, she packed up — at the same time her parents were relocating — and moved to Madison, Wis., to attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison while working on her curling game.

“I wanted to be closer to clubs and training facilities, and the Midwest offers that,” Joraanstad said. Those first years after she moved east saw many hours of training and honing her game. During the qualification run prior to the 2006 Olympics, Joraanstad and her team faced off against Debbie McCormick’s Wisconsin-based team, another of the top women’s curling teams at the time. The two teams placed second and third at the qualifying, knocking both out of contention for the Turin Olympics.

“We played a lot against each other every year, and it was a big disappointment (to miss the Olympics),” said Joraanstad. Rather than continuing to compete against each other, they formed a new team that features players from those original two teams. Since then, they have dominated the sport, winning the gold at the U.S. Nationals for the last four straight years. In fact, Joraanstad’s list of curling accomplishments reads like a novel, with medal and top 10 finishes at all the major world and national competitions since the late 1990s, when she first joined the sport.

The team took gold most recently at the U.S. Olympic trials, held in February 2009, not only qualifying for the Olympics, but also becoming the first U.S. athletes to qualify for the Games. For all of the disappointment there was in not making the 2006 Games, this time around it’s especially exciting because the event is practically in Joraanstad’s backyard.

“I think of it kind of like coming home,” she said of competing in the Olympics just hours from where she grew up. Joraanstad said she spent a lot of time north of the border during her early curling days, competing in tournaments and games. Unfortunately, she said, since she left the Northwest, she hasn’t been back very often — something she’d like to change now. With extended family still living in the area, Joraanstad said she hopes she’ll be able to come back and visit, but of course after the Olympics fever has died down.

The lure of curling, Joraanstad said, is that there is always something new to learn.

“In curling, I can learn something every day. Technique or strategy, you can never know it all,” she said.

Another plus is the camaraderie.

“It’s a team sport, and we’re all best friends and get along great, which is rare,” she said.

During the regular season, Joraanstad said the team spends a lot of time competing in Canada, but also traveling to Europe because that is where the top teams prepare for the Olympics.

“We’re focusing on what we can do,” she said. In Olympics competition, only 10 teams compete, automatically making the competition stiff.

“Every team is tough, and we have to take it one game at a time and put ourselves in a position for the playoffs,” she said.

The women’s team’s first test of the Games takes place on Feb. 16 at 2 p.m. when the United States meets Japan on the ice. The team must get through 12 Round Robin sessions, taking on opponents like Russia, Switzerland, Great Britain and Germany, before the semifinals begin on Feb. 25. The women’s curling medal events take place on Feb. 26 and Feb. 27.

PULL OUT BOX

Age: 29

Years curling: 15

No. of Olympics: First

First match: Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.

Venue: Vancouver Olympic Centre

Interesting fact: Since forging a new team, Joraanstad’s curling squad has won four straight U.S. national gold medals.