Broadcast by NBC, official broadcasters of 2010 Winter Games
November 15, 2006. . .Free tickets are now available for the Korbel Elite Curling Challenge to take place this Saturday, Nov. 18, at the Meadow Park Sports Centre, featuring USA curling Olympic medal winners joined by guest Olympians Dan Jansen and Picabo Street.
A limit of five tickets per party can be picked up at the Meadow Park Sport Centre in person starting today. The event is Saturday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and is being broadcast by NBC Sports in a two-hour special on the U.S. Thanksgiving weekend, the following Sunday, (Nov. 26) from 2 to 4 p.m. EST.
The Meadow Park Sports Centre is being converted to a first-class curling venue, while the Roundhouse Lodge on Whistler Mountain, is backdrop for the commentators, showcasing the best of Whistler. The arena, including the arena lobby, is closed for all sessions through Monday, Nov. 20. Regular programming returns Tuesday, Nov. 21.
USA Olympians Dan Jansen and Picabo Street will take up curling brooms in place of their skates and skis when they join as celebrity members of the Pete Fenson and Debbie McCormick teams in this battle of the sexes. Jansen, a 1994 Olympic gold medalist in the 1,000 meters in speedskating, will be the fifth player on the team, which includes 2006 Olympic bronze medalists Fenson, Shawn Rojeski, and Joe Polo, and their new teammate Doug Pottinger. Jansen, 41, was the first man to break 36 seconds in the 500-meter speedskating race and was a member of four Olympic teams (1984, '88, '92, '94).
Skipped by two-time Olympian Debbie McCormick, the women's defending national champions will partner with three-time Olympian and 1998 gold medalist Picabo Street. McCormick and teammates Nicole Joraanstad, Natalie Nicholson and Tracy Sachtjen will take on the Fenson rink in an 8-end game. At stake will be pride, prize money, and a victorious toast with Korbel champagne. Street, 35, won gold in the Super G at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, a silver medal in downhill in 1994 in Lillehammer, and is a two-time World Cup downhill champion.
Team Fenson's success in Torino not only resulted in the first Olympic medal in curling for the USA but also helped once again sweep American viewers off their feet four years after the sport was tabbed with cult status in Salt Lake City. During the 2006 Games, curling was featured predominantly on CNBC, which saw its ratings increase 562 percent from pre-Olympic first quarter deliveries.
The NBC team calling the action from Whistler will be the same one that brought the 2006 Olympics home to U.S. viewers, with commentators Don Chevrier and Don Duguid and sideline reporter Elfi Schlegel.
Events Whistler, a partnership of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, Whistler Blackcomb, and Tourism Whistler, is providing the ice at Meadow Park Sports Centre, the Roundhouse Lodge on Whistler Mountain as the host broadcast studio venue, and overall hosting and coordination support for the event. The renowned Fairmont Chateau Whistler is the event's hosting and accommodation partner.
The title sponsor, Korbel Champagne Cellars, was a supporter and licensee of the 1996 Olympic Games, and an Official Supporter of the 2000, 2002 and 2004 U.S. Olympic Teams and the 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.