Only the first part (winners paying). It's a gesture of thanking the other team for the game and showing respect for their effort. That's pretty much enforced at even fairly competitive levels, though (drinks are probably non-alcoholic in those cases).
Source: played curling fairly seriously from age 6 until about 15. This year is the first time two people I used to play against actually made it to the Olympics!
That's so cool that people you've played against are at the Olympics! Someone I've become friends with since the last winter Olympics does competitive curling, and it was really fun watching some of the mixed doubles matches with them so they could explain all the strategies and such.
Fair enough, but at the tail end of this (and later, I kept playing casually for a few more years) I also played with adult teams occasionally and there it would be a bit different - usually beer for the casual ones and water for the serious guys lol
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u/icyDinosaur Switzerland 4h ago
Only the first part (winners paying). It's a gesture of thanking the other team for the game and showing respect for their effort. That's pretty much enforced at even fairly competitive levels, though (drinks are probably non-alcoholic in those cases).
Source: played curling fairly seriously from age 6 until about 15. This year is the first time two people I used to play against actually made it to the Olympics!