title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: On 27 June 2015, Ederson rejoined Portuguese champions Benfica. Then, in July, he officially signed a five-year contract with the club, in a deal worth €500,000, and set a €45 million release clause. Rio Ave would keep 50% of the upcoming keeper's economic rights. In the 2015–16 season, Ederson started as a second choice in line for the first team, defended by compatriot and international Júlio César. Ederson first played some matches in the Segunda Liga with the reserve team and in the Taça da Liga with the main squad, before playing in the Primeira Liga on 5 March 2016 against local rivals Sporting CP, replacing injured Júlio César. Benfica won the Lisbon derby 0–1 and took the first place of Primeira Liga. He would then be part of eleven more victories that would seal Benfica's 35th league title, their third in a row. Five days later, he played the Taça da Liga final against Marítimo, which Benfica won 6–2. In addition, he played three matches in the Champions League campaign, where Benfica reached the quarter-finals. In his next season, he and Benfica won the treble of Primeira Liga, Taça de Portugal and Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: On 1 June 2017, Benfica announced that Ederson had joined Premier League club Manchester City for £35 million (€40 million). At the time, the transfer made him the second most expensive goalkeeper of all-time – currently fourth highest – after Gianluigi Buffon (£33 million), whose transfer fee, although the second highest ever in pounds sterling, still remained the highest of all time in euros (€52 million in 2001) until Alisson's (€75 million in 2018) and now Kepa Arrizabalaga's (€80 million in 2018). Ederson's transfer equalled Axel Witsel's as the largest fee a club has ever paid for a Benfica player.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: Ederson was immediately inserted as Pep Guardiola's first choice goalkeeper, supplanting Claudio Bravo. He made his competitive debut for the club on 12 August 2017 in a 0–2 away win at Brighton & Hove Albion, where he kept a clean sheet. On 9 September against Liverpool, Ederson suffered a kick to the face by Sadio Mané, and was forced to leave the game after eight minutes of treatment. Ederson received eight stitches, and Mané was sent off by referee Jon Moss and banned for the subsequent three matches. Ederson made his next start the following week in the Champions League against Feyenoord, sporting a piece of protective headgear. Ederson believed that Mané's collision was accidental, and accepted an apology from the Liverpool player.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: On 19 August 2018, Ederson became the first Manchester City goalkeeper to provide a Premier League assist, as his goal-kick was converted by Sergio Agüero for the opening goal in a 6–1 win over Huddersfield Town.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: On 26 July 2020, Ederson was awarded the Golden Glove for keeping the most clean sheets (16) in the 2019–20 Premier League season after a 5–0 home win against Norwich City.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: Ederson was named in Brazil's provisional squad for Copa América Centenario but was cut from the final squad due to injury. His debut for the national team came in a 3–0 win over Chile in a 2018 World Cup qualifier in October 2017. In May 2018, he was named in Tite's final 23-man squad for the World Cup in Russia.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: In June 2021, he made his major tournament debut for Brazil, starting and keeping a clean sheet in a 4–0 victory over Peru at the 2021 Copa América. On 10 July, he started in his nation's 1–0 defeat to rivals Argentina in the final.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: Ederson has been described as an agile, commanding, and physically imposing keeper, who possesses both physical strength and good reflexes and shot-stopping abilities between the posts. However, he is mostly highly regarded for his distribution and skill with the ball at his feet than for his abilities as shot-stopper: his control and confidence on the ball enables him to retain possession and quickly play the ball out from the back on the ground with his hands or either foot – even when put under pressure – or launch an attack with long kicks. Although naturally left-footed, he is capable of using either foot. Regarding his distribution, former Manchester City goalkeeper Shay Given described Ederson as "the best goalkeeper in the world with his feet" in 2018; his range of passing has also led to him be described as a "playmaker" in the media.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: He is also very quick when rushing off his line, and often functions as a sweeper-keeper. Regarded as a highly promising prospect in his formative years, he stood out for his decision making, consistency, and composure in goal, as well as his ability to organise his defence, and has also become an intelligent reader of the game; as such, some in the sport consider him to be one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League and in world football.


title: Ederson (footballer, born 1993)

text: Ederson acquired Portuguese citizenship in 2016. His body is heavily covered in tattoos, including a rose and a skull on his neck, angel wings on his back and a Portuguese League trophy on his leg, which he won for Benfica in 2016 and in 2017. Ederson also holds the Guinness World Record for Longest Football Drop Kick, which he achieved after kicking the ball 75.35 m (247 ft 2 in) across the ground at the Etihad Campus on 10 May 2018.


title: Elementary particle

text: In particle physics, an elementary particle or fundamental particle is a that is not composed of other particles. Particles currently thought to be elementary include electrons, the fundamental fermions (quarks, leptons, antiquarks, and antileptons, which generally are matter particles and antimatter particles), as well as the fundamental bosons (gauge bosons and the Higgs boson), which generally are force particles that mediate interactions among fermions. A particle containing two or more elementary particles is a composite particle.


title: Elementary particle

text: Ordinary matter is composed of atoms, once presumed to be elementary particles – "atomos" meaning "unable to be cut" in Greek – although the atom's existence remained controversial until about 1905, as some leading physicists regarded molecules as mathematical illusions, and matter as ultimately composed of energy. Subatomic constituents of the atom were first identified in the early 1930s; the electron and the proton, along with the photon, the particle of electromagnetic radiation. At that time, the recent advent of quantum mechanics was radically altering the conception of particles, as a single particle could seemingly span a field as would a wave, a paradox still eluding satisfactory explanation.


title: Elementary particle

text: Via quantum theory, protons and neutrons were found to contain quarks – up quarks and down quarks – now considered elementary particles. And within a molecule, the electron's three degrees of freedom (charge, spin, orbital) can separate via the wavefunction into three quasiparticles (holon, spinon, and orbiton). Yet a free electron – one which is "not" orbiting an atomic nucleus and hence lacks orbital motion – appears unsplittable and remains regarded as an elementary particle.


title: Elementary particle

text: Around 1980, an elementary particle's status as indeed elementary – an "ultimate constituent" of substance – was mostly discarded for a more practical outlook, embodied in particle physics' Standard Model, what's known as science's most experimentally successful theory. Many elaborations upon and theories beyond the Standard Model, including supersymmetry, double the number of elementary particles by hypothesizing that each known particle associates with a "shadow" partner far more massive, although all such superpartners remain undiscovered. Meanwhile, an elementary boson mediating gravitation – the graviton – remains hypothetical. Also, according to some hypotheses, spacetime is quantized, so within these hypotheses there probably exist "atoms" of space and time themselves.


title: Elementary particle

text: All elementary particles are either bosons or fermions. These classes are distinguished by their quantum statistics: fermions obey Fermi–Dirac statistics and bosons obey Bose–Einstein statistics. Their spin is differentiated via the spin–statistics theorem: it is half-integer for fermions, and integer for bosons.


title: Elementary particle

text: In the Standard Model, elementary particles are represented for predictive utility as point particles. Though extremely successful, the Standard Model is limited by its omission of gravitation and has some parameters arbitrarily added but unexplained.


title: Elementary particle

text: According to the current models of big bang nucleosynthesis, the primordial composition of visible matter of the universe should be about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium-4 (in mass). Neutrons are made up of one up and two down quarks, while protons are made of two up and one down quark. Since the other common elementary particles (such as electrons, neutrinos, or weak bosons) are so light or so rare when compared to atomic nuclei, we can neglect their mass contribution to the observable universe's total mass. Therefore, one can conclude that most of the visible mass of the universe consists of protons and neutrons, which, like all baryons, in turn consist of up quarks and down quarks.


title: Elementary particle

text: Some estimates imply that there are roughly baryons (almost entirely protons and neutrons) in the observable universe.


title: Elementary particle

text: In terms of number of particles, some estimates imply that nearly all the matter, excluding dark matter, occurs in neutrinos, which constitute the majority of the roughly elementary particles of matter that exist in the visible universe. Other estimates imply that roughly elementary particles exist in the visible universe (not including dark matter), mostly photons and other massless force carriers.


title: Elementary particle

text: The Standard Model of particle physics contains 12 flavors of elementary fermions, plus their corresponding antiparticles, as well as elementary bosons that mediate the forces and the Higgs boson, which was reported on July 4, 2012, as having been likely detected by the two main experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (ATLAS and CMS). However, the Standard Model is widely considered to be a provisional theory rather than a truly fundamental one, since it is not known if it is compatible with Einstein's general relativity. There may be hypothetical elementary particles not described by the Standard Model, such as the graviton, the particle that would carry the gravitational force, and sparticles, supersymmetric partners of the ordinary particles.


title: Elementary particle

text: The 12 fundamental fermions are divided into 3 generations of 4 particles each. Half of the fermions are leptons, three of which have an electric charge of −1, called the electron (), the muon (), and the tau (); the other three leptons are neutrinos (, , ), which are the only elementary fermions with neither electric nor color charge. The remaining six particles are quarks (discussed below).


title: Elementary particle

text: The following table lists current measured masses and mass estimates for all the fermions, using the same scale of measure: millions of electron-volts relative to square of light speed (MeV/c). For example, the most accurately known quark mass is of the top quark () at or , estimated using the On-shell scheme.


title: Elementary particle

text: Estimates of the values of quark masses depend on the version of quantum chromodynamics used to describe quark interactions. Quarks are always confined in an envelope of gluons which confer vastly greater mass to the mesons and baryons where quarks occur, so values for quark masses cannot be measured directly. Since their masses are so small compared to the effective mass of the surrounding gluons, slight differences in the calculation make large differences in the masses.


title: Elementary particle

text: There are also 12 fundamental fermionic antiparticles that correspond to these 12 particles. For example, the antielectron (positron) "" is the electron's antiparticle and has an electric charge of +1.


title: Elementary particle

text: Isolated quarks and antiquarks have never been detected, a fact explained by confinement. Every quark carries one of three color charges of the strong interaction; antiquarks similarly carry anticolor. Color-charged particles interact via gluon exchange in the same way that charged particles interact via photon exchange. However, gluons are themselves color-charged, resulting in an amplification of the strong force as color-charged particles are separated. Unlike the electromagnetic force, which diminishes as charged particles separate, color-charged particles feel increasing force.


title: Elementary particle

text: However, color-charged particles may combine to form color neutral composite particles called hadrons. A quark may pair up with an antiquark: the quark has a color and the antiquark has the corresponding anticolor. The color and anticolor cancel out, forming a color neutral meson. Alternatively, three quarks can exist together, one quark being "red", another "blue", another "green". These three colored quarks together form a color-neutral baryon. Symmetrically, three antiquarks with the colors "antired", "antiblue" and "antigreen" can form a color-neutral antibaryon.


title: Elementary particle

text: Quarks also carry fractional electric charges, but, since they are confined within hadrons whose charges are all integral, fractional charges have never been isolated. Note that quarks have electric charges of either + or −, whereas antiquarks have corresponding electric charges of either − or +.


title: Elementary particle

text: Evidence for the existence of quarks comes from deep inelastic scattering: firing electrons at nuclei to determine the distribution of charge within nucleons (which are baryons). If the charge is uniform, the electric field around the proton should be uniform and the electron should scatter elastically. Low-energy electrons do scatter in this way, but, above a particular energy, the protons deflect some electrons through large angles. The recoiling electron has much less energy and a jet of particles is emitted. This inelastic scattering suggests that the charge in the proton is not uniform but split among smaller charged particles: quarks.


title: Elementary particle

text: In the Standard Model, vector (spin-1) bosons (gluons, photons, and the W and Z bosons) mediate forces, whereas the Higgs boson (spin-0) is responsible for the intrinsic mass of particles. Bosons differ from fermions in the fact that multiple bosons can occupy the same quantum state (Pauli exclusion principle). Also, bosons can be either elementary, like photons, or a combination, like mesons. The spin of bosons are integers instead of half integers.


title: Elementary particle

text: Gluons mediate the strong interaction, which join quarks and thereby form hadrons, which are either baryons (three quarks) or mesons (one quark and one antiquark). Protons and neutrons are baryons, joined by gluons to form the atomic nucleus. Like quarks, gluons exhibit color and anticolor – unrelated to the concept of visual color and rather the particles' strong interactions – sometimes in combinations, altogether eight variations of gluons.


title: Elementary particle

text: There are three weak gauge bosons: W, W, and Z; these mediate the weak interaction. The W bosons are known for their mediation in nuclear decay: The W converts a neutron into a proton then decays into an electron and electron-antineutrino pair.


title: Elementary particle

text: The Z does not convert particle flavor or charges, but rather changes momentum; it is the only mechanism for elastically scattering neutrinos. The weak gauge bosons were discovered due to momentum change in electrons from neutrino-Z exchange. The massless photon mediates the electromagnetic interaction. These four gauge bosons form the electroweak interaction among elementary particles.


title: Elementary particle

text: Although the weak and electromagnetic forces appear quite different to us at everyday energies, the two forces are theorized to unify as a single electroweak force at high energies. This prediction was clearly confirmed by measurements of cross-sections for high-energy electron-proton scattering at the HERA collider at DESY. The differences at low energies is a consequence of the high masses of the W and Z bosons, which in turn are a consequence of the Higgs mechanism. Through the process of spontaneous symmetry breaking, the Higgs selects a special direction in electroweak space that causes three electroweak particles to become very heavy (the weak bosons) and one to remain with an undefined rest mass as it is always in motion (the photon). On 4 July 2012, after many years of experimentally searching for evidence of its existence, the Higgs boson was announced to have been observed at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Peter Higgs who first posited the existence of the Higgs boson was present at the announcement. The Higgs boson is believed to have a mass of approximately 125 GeV. The statistical significance of this discovery was reported as 5 sigma, which implies a certainty of roughly 99.99994%. In particle physics, this is the level of significance required to officially label experimental observations as a discovery. Research into the properties of the newly discovered particle continues.


title: Elementary particle

text: The graviton is a hypothetical elementary spin-2 particle proposed to mediate gravitation. While it remains undiscovered due to the difficulty inherent in its detection, it is sometimes included in tables of elementary particles. The conventional graviton is massless, although some models containing massive Kaluza–Klein gravitons exist.


title: Elementary particle

text: Although experimental evidence overwhelmingly confirms the predictions derived from the Standard Model, some of its parameters were added arbitrarily, not determined by a particular explanation, which remain mysterious, for instance the hierarchy problem. Theories beyond the Standard Model attempt to resolve these shortcomings.


title: Elementary particle

text: One extension of the Standard Model attempts to combine the electroweak interaction with the strong interaction into a single 'grand unified theory' (GUT). Such a force would be spontaneously broken into the three forces by a Higgs-like mechanism. This breakdown is theorized to occur at high energies, making it difficult to observe unification in a laboratory. The most dramatic prediction of grand unification is the existence of X and Y bosons, which cause proton decay. However, the non-observation of proton decay at the Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory rules out the simplest GUTs, including SU(5) and SO(10).


title: Elementary particle

text: Supersymmetry extends the Standard Model by adding another class of symmetries to the Lagrangian. These symmetries exchange fermionic particles with bosonic ones. Such a symmetry predicts the existence of supersymmetric particles, abbreviated as "sparticles", which include the sleptons, squarks, neutralinos, and charginos. Each particle in the Standard Model would have a superpartner whose spin differs by from the ordinary particle. Due to the breaking of supersymmetry, the sparticles are much heavier than their ordinary counterparts; they are so heavy that existing particle colliders would not be powerful enough to produce them. However, some physicists believe that sparticles will be detected by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.


title: Elementary particle

text: String theory is a model of physics whereby all "particles" that make up matter are composed of strings (measuring at the Planck length) that exist in an 11-dimensional (according to M-theory, the leading version) or 12-dimensional (according to F-theory) universe. These strings vibrate at different frequencies that determine mass, electric charge, color charge, and spin. A "string" can be open (a line) or closed in a loop (a one-dimensional sphere, that is, a circle). As a string moves through space it sweeps out something called a "world sheet". String theory predicts 1- to 10-branes (a 1-brane being a string and a 10-brane being a 10-dimensional object) that prevent tears in the "fabric" of space using the uncertainty principle (e.g., the electron orbiting a hydrogen atom has the probability, albeit small, that it could be anywhere else in the universe at any given moment).


title: Elementary particle

text: String theory proposes that our universe is merely a 4-brane, inside which exist the 3 space dimensions and the 1 time dimension that we observe. The remaining 7 theoretical dimensions either are very tiny and curled up (and too small to be macroscopically accessible) or simply do not/cannot exist in our universe (because they exist in a grander scheme called the "multiverse" outside our known universe).


title: Elementary particle

text: Some predictions of the string theory include existence of extremely massive counterparts of ordinary particles due to vibrational excitations of the fundamental string and existence of a massless spin-2 particle behaving like the graviton.


title: Elementary particle

text: Technicolor theories try to modify the Standard Model in a minimal way by introducing a new QCD-like interaction. This means one adds a new theory of so-called Techniquarks, interacting via so called Technigluons. The main idea is that the Higgs boson is not an elementary particle but a bound state of these objects.


title: Elementary particle

text: According to preon theory there are one or more orders of particles more fundamental than those (or most of those) found in the Standard Model. The most fundamental of these are normally called preons, which is derived from "pre-quarks". In essence, preon theory tries to do for the Standard Model what the Standard Model did for the particle zoo that came before it. Most models assume that almost everything in the Standard Model can be explained in terms of three to six more fundamental particles and the rules that govern their interactions. Interest in preons has waned since the simplest models were experimentally ruled out in the 1980s.


title: Elementary particle

text: Accelerons are the hypothetical subatomic particles that integrally link the newfound mass of the neutrino to the dark energy conjectured to be accelerating the expansion of the universe.


title: Elementary particle

text: In this theory, neutrinos are influenced by a new force resulting from their interactions with accelerons, leading to dark energy. Dark energy results as the universe tries to pull neutrinos apart. Accelerons are thought to interact with matter more infrequently than they do with neutrinos.


title: Elementary particle

text: The most important address about the current experimental and theoretical knowledge about elementary particle physics is the Particle Data Group, where different international institutions collect all experimental data and give short reviews over the contemporary theoretical understanding.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Clarence Clyde Seedorf (; born 1 April 1976) is a Dutch professional football manager and former player. He is regarded by many to be one of the best midfielders of his generation.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf is considered one of the most successful players in UEFA Champions League history, as he is the only player to have won the Champions League with three clubs – once with Ajax, in 1995, once with Real Madrid, in 1998 and twice with AC Milan, in 2003 and 2007.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: At international level, he represented the Netherlands on 87 occasions, and took part in three UEFA European Football Championships (1996, 2000, 2004) and the 1998 FIFA World Cup, reaching the semi-finals of the latter three tournaments.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: In 2004, he was chosen by Pelé as part of the FIFA 100. Seedorf is one of the most decorated Dutch players ever, and has won domestic and continental titles while playing for clubs in the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Brazil.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Born in Paramaribo, Suriname, Seedorf was raised as Christian in Almere, Flevoland, where he moved when he was two years old. He grew up in a footballing family, with both his younger brothers Jürgen and Chedric Seedorf, and his father, former player and talent agent Johann Seedorf.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf began his career at the age of six in the youth ranks of his local amateur sides VV AS '80 and Real Almere, before being discovered and recruited to the ranks of nearby Dutch giants Ajax by Urgent Scoutingteam, the talent agency set up by Johan Cruyff, and which was responsible for recruiting the likes of Frank and Ronald de Boer, Edgar Davids, Robert Witschge and Patrick Kluivert to the club as well.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Following in their brother's footsteps, under the guidance of their father and talent agent, Seedorf's siblings, as well as cousin Stefano, would later also join the ranks of Ajax.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: A product of the famed Ajax Youth Academy, Seedorf started his career as a right midfielder for Ajax during the early 1990s. He made his professional debut on 29 November 1992 against Groningen at the age of 16 years and 242 days, making him the youngest-ever debutant for Ajax, at the time. He quickly established himself as the first choice on his position under manager Louis van Gaal, and in the 1993–94 season, his second with the club, he helped the Amsterdam-based side win the treble, securing the Eredivisie title, the KNVB Cup and the Dutch Super Cup in the same year. Among his teammates was Frank Rijkaard, the player he used to idolise in his younger days.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: The following season saw Seedorf help his side secure consecutive Super Cup and Eredivisie titles, as well as help his side to their fourth European Cup trophy, winning the 1994–95 UEFA Champions League after defeating AC Milan in the final. He played a key role in the final before being replaced in the 53rd minute by striker Nwankwo Kanu. Patrick Kluivert scored a late goal to lift Ajax to a 1–0 victory over the Italian giants, who Seedorf would later go on to represent for a decade. While at Ajax, he was part of a trio known as "De kabel", composed of Edgar Davids, Patrick Kluivert and himself. Later, Winston Bogarde and Michael Reiziger would be added to the group to make it a quintet; what had started as a friendship was then taken over during the UEFA Euro 1996 to describe the group.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Opting not to extend his contract with Ajax following their European success and the Bosman ruling, Seedorf signed a one-year contract with Italian Serie A side Sampdoria instead. While not able to obtain any silverware in his first season at his new club, Seedorf appeared in 32 matches, scoring three goals helping his side to an eighth-place finish in the league table, all the while maintaining the form he had demonstrated at Ajax in the past. Seedorf was then able to secure a transfer to Real Madrid, moving to the Spanish La Liga by the end of the season.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf moved to Real Madrid in 1996, where he was virtually ever present for "Los Blancos" in his first three seasons. In his first season, he helped the team regain the La Liga title, while in his second season, 1997–98, he played a major role in the team's Champions League success, as Madrid secured a 1–0 victory over Juventus in the final, earning his second Champions League title of his career.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: While playing for Real Madrid, Seedorf scored a notable long-range goal against Atlético Madrid in 1997.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: At the end of the 1998–99 season, Madrid and Juventus wanted to swap Seedorf for Zinedine Zidane, but the deal did not go through and the French playmaker waited two more years before joining Real Madrid.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Starting from the summer of 1999, Seedorf's role at Real Madrid became less prominent during the tenure of Dutch manager Guus Hiddink at the club. He was eventually transferred back to Italy during the 1999–2000 season, this time to Inter Milan, for a fee about 44 billion Italian lira (approximately €23 million).


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: On 24 December 1999, Seedorf moved to Inter in a $24.35 million deal after cementing his place in the Real Madrid midfield for over three years. Despite helping the team to the Coppa Italia final later that season – a 2–1 aggregate loss to Lazio where Seedorf scored Inter's only goal – Seedorf could not help bring any major silverware to the club. Nonetheless, he is remembered by many Inter fans for his two goals against Juventus in a 2–2 draw on 9 March 2002, both of which were superb long-range efforts.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: After two years with Inter, Seedorf moved to their city rivals AC Milan in 2002, in an exchange with Francesco Coco. Seedorf won the Coppa Italia with Milan in 2003, the first time they had won the competition in 26 years. In the same season, Seedorf gained his third Champions League medal, becoming the first player to win the Champions League with three clubs. The all-Italian final saw Milan beat Juventus on penalties after a 0–0 draw, despite Seedorf failing to convert his own penalty. The following season, 2003–04, Seedorf played a role in the Milan side that won the Serie A title. It was Seedorf's fourth national league title of his career, following his two Dutch title wins with Ajax and his one Spanish win with Real Madrid.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf played a major role as Milan reached the Champions League final again in 2005, scoring the only goal of the game in their opening group match against Shakhtar Donetsk on 14 September 2004 and appearing in all 13 competition matches. He started the match against Liverpool in Istanbul in which Milan lost a 3–0 lead, eventually losing on penalties after a 3–3 draw; Seedorf did not take a penalty-kick. Milan also finished runners-up in the Serie A, seven points behind champions Juventus, although Juventus were stripped of the title and Milan docked points for match-fixing.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: A match-fixing scandal tarnished Serie A and Milan were weakened by the scandal but were allowed to continue in Europe the following season, which led to their top players remaining with the club. In that season, 2005–06, he scored a goal after just 25 seconds in a 2–2 draw against Schalke.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf's role as foil to midfielder Kaká became increasingly impressive as the pair combined in style to score and supply the goals which drove Milan past Bayern Munich and Manchester United to another Champions League final, again against Liverpool. This time, however, they defeated them 2–1 in Athens, with Seedorf collecting his fourth Champions League medal. In that same year, Seedorf was a part of the Milan squad that won the 2007 FIFA Club World Cup, becoming the first European player to win the trophy with three clubs (Ajax in 1995 and Real Madrid in 1998). He ended up winning the Silver Ball for the competition for his performances, notably scoring the winner against Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi final to send his club to the final.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: At the end of the 2006–07 season, Seedorf was voted best midfielder of the Champions League. He played his 100th game in the Champions League on 4 December against Celtic.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: With Milan, Seedorf formed a formidable midfield partnership with Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo, which began since the 2002–03 season. This midfield trio was still used in the starting line-up until the 2011–12 season (Pirlo left the "Rossoneri" in the summer of 2011), although their form had been declining. Under the guidance of coach Carlo Ancelotti, their role was to support an attacking midfielder, whether it be Rivaldo, Rui Costa, Kaká or Ronaldinho.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf became the foreigner with the most appearances for Milan following a game against his former club, Sampdoria, which he scored in. At 395 appearances, he passed Nils Liedholm for this historic milestone. During the Sampdoria game, he also became the ninth-highest scoring foreigner for Milan, with 58 goals.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: On 29 March 2010, Seedorf was the target of racist chants from Lazio fans in a 1–1 draw, which led to the Rome-based club being given a €15,000 fine by the Italian Football Federation (FIGC). This led the Italy's players' union want racism stamped out in Serie A.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf won his second "Scudetto" with Milan in the 2010–11 Serie A season, where he once again played a vital role. He scored four goals and made 36 appearances in the 2010–11 season.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf added yet another medal to his trophy cabinet in the first official game of the 2011–12 season, where he played the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 comeback win over rivals Inter Milan in the Supercoppa Italiana. He scored the winning goal of Milan's first win of the 2011–12 Serie A campaign, a 1–0 defeat of Cesena on 24 September.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf was ranked seventh of the 20 best players of the Champions League, a list which was compiled in 2012 to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the competition. The ranking was done by "Champions", the official magazine of UEFA. On 14 May, he said that he was playing his last match with Milan against Novara that day. He also confirmed that he would continue to play football for another club. On 21 June, Seedorf held a press conference announcing his departure from Milan, stating, "I am leaving after 10 wonderful years... I leave a family" after playing for the "Rossoneri" for a decade and winning two Champions League, two "Scudettos" and a Coppa Italia. Club CEO Adriano Galliani spoke of Seedorf following the player's departure in the highest regard, stating, "When Milan played well, which happened often, each and every time it occurred Seedorf played an amazing match. He is a world class player."


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: On 30 June 2012, Seedorf signed a two-year contract with Brazilian club Botafogo. The veteran midfielder made his debut with the club on 22 July against Grêmio. On 5 August, Seedorf scored his first goal for Botafogo, curling in a free kick against Atlético Goianiense. On 5 September, Seedorf scored two goals and made an assist against Cruzeiro, helping Botafogo to a 3–1 victory. On 3 February 2013, for the first time on his career, Seedorf scored a hat-trick against Macaé, his first game as a starter that year. Before that game, Seedorf played the second half against Fluminense and made a good assist to Bolívar, who scored the match's equalizer.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: On 10 March 2013, Seedorf won his first title with Botafogo: the 2013 Taça Guanabara, the first round of 2013 Campeonato Carioca. On 5 May, he won the second round of 2013 Campeonato Carioca – 2013 Taça Rio – against Fluminense. That is also the day of his first official title for Botafogo, the 2013 Campeonato Carioca, as the team won both rounds and no final match was needed. On 6 June, Seedorf scored his 100th goal in domestic league play: 11 with Ajax, 3 with Sampdoria, 15 with Real Madrid, 8 with Inter, 47 with Milan and 16 with Botafogo. On 14 January 2014, Seedorf announced his retirement from professional football. He announced that he is ending his playing career to take up the manager position at Milan following the sacking of Massimiliano Allegri.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Due to Surinamese rules against dual citizenship, players who take Dutch citizenship are no longer eligible to represent the Netherlands' former colony. He received his first callup on 14 December 1994 at the age of 18 against Luxembourg. Seedorf scored on his debut, helping his team to a 5–0 victory in a UEFA Euro 1996 qualifying match.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf was in the Dutch squad for the UEFA European Championships in 1996, where his penalty miss proved decisive in the quarter-final shootout defeat to France. He also appeared for the Netherlands at Euro 2000 and 2004, as well as the 1998 FIFA World Cup, reaching the semi-finals in all three of these tournaments.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: On 12 November 2006, Seedorf was recalled for the first time since June 2004 as a replacement for the injured Wesley Sneijder. He started and played the full 90 minutes in a 1–1 friendly draw against England. Seedorf won the last of his 87 caps for the Netherlands in 2007. In the Euro 2008 qualifiers against Romania (0–0 at home) and Slovenia (1–0 away win), Seedorf played four and six minutes respectively. There were doubts on his position within the national team, as Marco van Basten favoured younger players such as Rafael van der Vaart, Wesley Sneijder and Robin van Persie. On 13 May 2008, Seedorf announced that he would not take part in UEFA Euro 2008 due to his ongoing personal conflict with van Basten.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Nicknamed “Il Professore” and “Willy Wonka”, Seedorf was a well-rounded, hardworking and versatile player, who was gifted with strength, pace, stamina and notable physical attributes, which allowed him to play anywhere in midfield and contribute both offensively and defensively, due to his significant tactical intelligence; although he primarily served as a playmaker in the centre, throughout his career he was also deployed as an attacking midfielder, on the wing, as a "mezzala", or in a holding or box-to-box role.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: A world class midfielder, in addition to his fitness and athletic characteristics, as well as his ability to break down opposing plays and win back possession, he was an elegant, creative player and an excellent dribbler, possessing outstanding technique, ball skills and vision, which enabled him to retain possession when under pressure and subsequently lay the ball off to an on-rushing teammate; he was also an accurate passer and crosser of the ball. Seedorf was also capable of scoring goals due to his powerful, accurate striking ability from distance with either foot; furthermore, he was an effective free kick taker. Despite his physical, energetic, and tenacious style of play, Seedorf was regarded as a correct player, and was sent off only two times in his entire career. In addition to his success and footballing skills, Seedorf has also been praised for his longevity as a footballer.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf was appointed the new head coach of Milan on 16 January 2014, terminating his contract with Botafogo early in order to take on the managerial role, with Milan languishing in 11th in the Serie A table. On 19 January, he won his first managerial match, played against Hellas Verona, with Mario Balotelli scoring the lone goal of the game.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Despite overseeing the club's first five-match winning run since 2011, and first Serie A victory in the Milan derby against Inter since 2011, Seedorf was dismissed by Milan on 9 June 2014 after just four months on the job, with Filippo Inzaghi being named as his successor. During the Dutchman's time at the helm of the club, Milan gained a total of 35 out of a possible 57 points - the fourth-most out of all Serie A sides (one less than Napoli's corresponding total and six less than Roma's).


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf was appointed manager of China League One team Shenzhen F.C. in July 2016, but was replaced five months later by Sven-Göran Eriksson. A year later Seedorf joined Brazilian club Atlético Paranaense as both a coach and a sporting director Within a month the deal was cancelled after both parties failed to reach an agreement. In February 2018, Seedorf was appointed as manager of Spanish club Deportivo de La Coruña for the remainder of the 2017–18 season. Seedorf led the team to just two wins in sixteen matches, Deportivo were relegated from La Liga, and at the end of the season he left the club.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: After a deal with Sven-Göran Eriksson could not be agreed, the Fédération Camerounaise de Football appointed Seedorf as the manager of the Cameroon national team in August 2018. He was joined by former teammate Patrick Kluivert as his assistant manager. However, after a disappointing 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, where Cameroon was eliminated by Nigeria in the round of sixteen after an unimpressive group stage, he was sacked in July 2019.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf speaks six languages fluently: Dutch, English, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Sranan Tongo. He was often seen as a spiritual, intelligent and articulate figure in football, and in a 2011 interview, Seedorf stated that he was studying to obtain a master's degree in Business at the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan; because of this, he earned the nickname ""il professore"" ("the professor") during his time playing at Milan. Seedorf is married to a Brazilian woman, Luviana Seedorf, with whom he owns a restaurant called "Finger's" in Milan. They have four children. The relationship is rumored to have been ended around 2018, with Seedorf finding a new partner, Sophia Makramati, a Canadian citizen of Iranian descent and Muslim religious background. On 4 March 2022, Seedorf announced on Instagram that he had converted to Islam in Abu Dhabi.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Seedorf has dabbled in media-related work during recent years. In 2009, he worked with "The New York Times" to run a column entitled "Seedorf responds", where once a month he would answer peoples' questions regarding football. He joined the BBC's team covering the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, working as a television pundit. He also presented a number of features for the BBC coverage, including one about Robben Island. He joined the BBC for their "Match of the Day" Live coverage of UEFA Euro 2012. He has also made appearances on "Match of the Day 2" during the English football league season.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Because of his strong connection with the country Suriname, where he was born, he is involved in many social development projects there. He built his own "Clarence Seedorf Stadium" in the district of Para in Suriname. In this stadium, the Para Juniors League of Suriname is being held and the teams of the Suri Profs & SV The Brothers play there regularly. With his Champions for Children Foundation, he supports projects for good causes in Suriname. For this, Suriname has honoured him to Commandor of the High-Order of the Yellow Star, and recently in 2011, he was invested as a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau (OON).


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: On 5 June 2009, Seedorf announced at a press conference after a meeting with Nelson Mandela that he had become the Nelson Mandela Foundation's latest Legacy Champion. He joins Patrice Motsepe, Tokyo Sexwale, David Rockefeller, Peggy Dulany and Bill Clinton, who are also members of a select group of philanthropists who are helping to ensure that Mr. Mandela's legacy lives on.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: In 2012 and 2014, Seedorf took part in "Soccer Aid", a charity match at Old Trafford with former professional players and celebrities. He played for "The Rest of the World" team against England. In 2014, he scored a hat-trick, where The Rest of the World won 4–2; they raised over £4 million in total.


title: Clarence Seedorf

text: Clarence's nephew, Collin Seedorf, is also a professional footballer, and currently plays for Dutch club, FC Eindhoven.


title: Curling

text: Curling is a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area which is segmented into four concentric circles. It is related to bowls, boules, and shuffleboard. Two teams, each with four players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones, also called "rocks", across the ice "curling sheet" toward the "house", a circular target marked on the ice. Each team has eight stones, with each player throwing two. The purpose is to accumulate the highest score for a "game"; points are scored for the stones resting closest to the centre of the house at the conclusion of each "end", which is completed when both teams have thrown all of their stones once. A game usually consists of eight or ten ends.


title: Curling

text: The player can induce a curved path, described as "curl", by causing the stone to slowly rotate as it slides. The path of the rock may be further influenced by two sweepers with brooms or brushes, who accompany it as it slides down the sheet and sweep the ice in front of the stone. "Sweeping a rock" decreases the friction, which makes the stone travel a straighter path (with less curl) and a longer distance. A great deal of strategy and teamwork go into choosing the ideal path and placement of a stone for each situation, and the skills of the curlers determine the degree to which the stone will achieve the desired result.


title: Curling

text: Evidence that curling existed in Scotland in the early 16th century includes a curling stone inscribed with the date 1511 found (along with another bearing the date 1551) when an old pond was drained at Dunblane, Scotland. The world's oldest curling stone and the world's oldest football are now kept in the same museum (the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum) in Stirling. The first written reference to a contest using stones on ice coming from the records of Paisley Abbey, Renfrewshire, in February 1541. Two paintings, "Winter Landscape with a Bird Trap" and "The Hunters in the Snow" (both dated 1565) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, depict Flemish peasants curling, albeit without brooms; Scotland and the Low Countries had strong trading and cultural links during this period, which is also evident in the history of golf.


title: Curling

text: The word "curling" first appears in print in 1620 in Perth, Scotland, in the preface and the verses of a poem by Henry Adamson. The sport was (and still is, in Scotland and Scottish-settled regions like southern New Zealand) also known as "the roaring game" because of the sound the stones make while traveling over the "pebble" (droplets of water applied to the playing surface). The verbal noun "curling" is formed from the Scots (and English) verb "curl", which describes the motion of the stone.


title: Curling

text: Kilsyth Curling Club claims to be the first club in the world, having been formally constituted in 1716; it is still in existence today. Kilsyth also claims the oldest purpose-built curling pond in the world at Colzium, in the form of a low dam creating a shallow pool some in size. The International Olympic Committee recognises the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (founded as the Grand Caledonian Curling Club in 1838) as developing the first official rules for the sport.


title: Curling

text: In the early history of curling, the playing stones were simply flat-bottomed stones from rivers or fields, which lacked a handle and were of inconsistent size, shape, and smoothness. Some early stones had holes for a finger and the thumb, akin to ten-pin bowling balls. Unlike today, the thrower had little control over the 'curl' or velocity and relied more on luck than on precision, skill, and strategy. The sport was often played on frozen rivers although purpose-built ponds were later created in many Scottish towns. For example, the Scottish poet David Gray describes whisky-drinking curlers on the Luggie Water at Kirkintilloch.


title: Curling

text: In Darvel, East Ayrshire, the weavers relaxed by playing curling matches using the heavy stone weights from the looms' "warp beams", fitted with a detachable handle for the purpose. Central Canadian curlers often used 'irons' rather than stones until the early 1900s; Canada is the only country known to have done so, while others experimented with wood or ice-filled tins.


title: Curling

text: Outdoor curling was very popular in Scotland between the 16th and 19th centuries because the climate provided good ice conditions every winter. Scotland is home to the international governing body for curling, the World Curling Federation in Perth, which originated as a committee of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, the mother club of curling.


title: Curling

text: In the 19th century several private railway stations in the United Kingdom were built to serve curlers attending bonspiels, such as those at Aboyne, Carsbreck, and Drummuir.


title: Curling

text: Today, the sport is most firmly established in Canada, having been taken there by Scottish emigrants. The Royal Montreal Curling Club, the oldest established sports club still active in North America, was established in 1807. The first curling club in the United States was established in 1830, and the sport was introduced to Switzerland and Sweden before the end of the 19th century, also by Scots. Today, curling is played all over Europe and has spread to Brazil, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, China, and Korea.


title: Curling

text: The first world championship for curling was limited to men and was known as the "Scotch Cup", held in Falkirk and Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1959. The first world title was won by the Canadian team from Regina, Saskatchewan, skipped by Ernie Richardson. (The "skip" is the team member who calls the shots; see below.)


title: Curling

text: Curling has been a medal sport in the Winter Olympic Games since the 1998 Winter Olympics. It currently includes men's, women's, and mixed doubles tournaments (the mixed doubles event was held for the first time in 2018).


title: Curling

text: In February 2002, the International Olympic Committee retroactively decided that the curling competition from the 1924 Winter Olympics (originally called "Semaine des Sports d'Hiver", or International Winter Sports Week) would be considered official Olympic events and no longer be considered demonstration events. Thus, the first Olympic medals in curling, which at the time was played outdoors, were awarded for the 1924 Winter Games, with the gold medal won by Great Britain, two silver medals by Sweden, and the bronze by France. A demonstration tournament was also held during the 1932 Winter Olympic Games between four teams from Canada and four teams from the United States, with Canada winning 12 games to 4.


title: Curling

text: Since the sport's official addition in the 1998 Olympics, Canada has dominated the sport with their men's teams winning gold in 2006, 2010, and 2014, and silver in 1998 and 2002. The women's team won gold in 1998 and 2014, a silver in 2010, and a bronze in 2002 and 2006. The mixed doubles team won gold in 2018.


title: Curling

text: The playing surface or "curling sheet" is defined by the World Curling Federation Rules of Curling. It is a rectangular area of ice, carefully prepared to be as flat and level as possible, in length by in width. The shorter borders of the sheet are called the backboards.


title: Curling

text: A target, the "house", is centred on the intersection of the "centre line", drawn lengthwise down the centre of the sheet and the "tee line", drawn from, and parallel to, the backboard. These lines divide the house into quarters. The house consists of a centre circle (the "button") and three concentric rings, of diameters 4, 8, and 12 feet, formed by painting or laying a coloured vinyl sheet under the ice and are usually distinguished by colour. A stone must at least touch the outer ring in order to score (see Scoring below); otherwise, the rings are merely a visual aid for aiming and judging which stone is closer to the button.


title: Curling

text: The "hacks", which give the thrower something to push against when making the throw, are fixed behind each button. On indoor rinks, there are usually two fixed hacks, rubber-lined holes, one on each side of the centre line, with the inside edge no more than from the centre line and the front edge on the hack line. A single moveable hack may also be used.


title: Curling

text: The ice may be natural but is usually frozen by a refrigeration plant pumping a brine solution through numerous pipes fixed lengthwise at the bottom of a shallow pan of water. Most curling clubs have an ice maker whose main job is to care for the ice. At the major curling championships, ice maintenance is extremely important. Large events, such as national/international championships, are typically held in an arena that presents a challenge to the ice maker, who must constantly monitor and adjust the ice and air temperatures as well as air humidity levels to ensure a consistent playing surface. It is common for each sheet of ice to have multiple sensors embedded in order to monitor surface temperature, as well as probes set up in the seating area (to monitor humidity) and in the compressor room (to monitor brine supply and return temperatures). The surface of the ice is maintained at a temperature of around .


title: Curling

text: A key part of the preparation of the playing surface is the spraying of water droplets onto the ice, which form "pebble" on freezing. The pebbled ice surface resembles an orange peel, and the stone moves on top of the pebbled ice. The pebble, along with the concave bottom of the stone, decreases the friction between the stone and the ice, allowing the stone to travel farther. As the stone moves over the pebble, any rotation of the stone causes it to "curl", or travel along a curved path. The amount of curl (commonly referred to as the "feet of curl") can change during a game as the pebble wears; the ice maker must monitor this and be prepared to scrape and re-pebble the surface prior to each game.


title: Curling

text: The curling stone (also sometimes called a "rock" in North America) is made of granite and is specified by the World Curling Federation, which requires a weight between , a maximum circumference of , and a minimum height of . The only part of the stone in contact with the ice is the "running surface", a narrow, flat annulus or ring, wide and about in diameter; the sides of the stone bulge convex down to the ring, with the inside of the ring hollowed concave to clear the ice. This concave bottom was first proposed by J. S. Russell of Toronto, Ontario, Canada sometime after 1870, and was subsequently adopted by Scottish stone manufacturer Andrew Kay.


title: Curling

text: The granite for the stones comes from two sources: Ailsa Craig, an island off the Ayrshire coast of Scotland, and the Trefor Granite Quarry in Wales.


title: Curling

text: Ailsa Craig is the traditional source and produces two types of granite, "Blue Hone" and "Ailsa Craig Common Green". "Blue Hone" has very low water absorption, which prevents the action of repeatedly freezing water from eroding the stone. "Ailsa Craig Common Green" is a lesser quality granite than "Blue Hone". In the past, most curling stones were made from "Blue Hone", but the island is now a wildlife reserve, and the quarry is restricted by environmental conditions that exclude blasting.


title: Curling

text: Kays of Scotland has been making curling stones in Mauchline, Ayrshire, since 1851 and has the exclusive rights to the Ailsa Craig granite, granted by the Marquess of Ailsa, whose family has owned the island since 1560. According to the 1881 Census, Andrew Kay employed 30 people in his curling stone factory in Mauchline. The last harvest of Ailsa Craig granite by Kays took place in 2013, after a hiatus of 11 years; 2,000 tons were harvested, sufficient to fill anticipated orders through at least 2020. Kays have been involved in providing curling stones for the Winter Olympics since Chamonix in 1924 and has been the exclusive manufacturer of curling stones for the Olympics since the 2006 Winter Olympics.


title: Curling

text: "Trefor" granite comes from the Yr Eifl or Trefor Granite Quarry in the village of Trefor on the north coast of the Llŷn Peninsula in Gwynedd, Wales and has produced granite since 1850. "Trefor" granite comes in shades of pink, blue, and grey. The quarry supplies curling stone granite exclusively to the Canada Curling Stone Company, which has been producing stones since 1992 and supplied the stones for the 2002 Winter Olympics.


title: Curling

text: A handle is attached by a bolt running vertically through a hole in the centre of the stone. The handle allows the stone to be gripped and rotated upon release; on properly prepared ice the rotation will bend ("curl") the path of the stone in the direction in which the front edge of the stone is turning, especially as the stone slows. Handles are coloured to identify each team, two popular colours in major tournaments being red and yellow.


title: Curling

text: In competition, an electronic handle known as the Eye on the Hog may be fitted to detect hog line violations. This electronically detects whether the thrower's hand is in contact with the handle as it passes the hog line and indicates a violation by lights at the base of the handle (see "delivery" below). The "eye on the hog" eliminates human error and the need for hog line officials. It is mandatory in high-level national and international competition, but its cost, around US$650 each, currently puts it beyond the reach of most curling clubs.


title: Curling

text: The "curling broom", or "brush", is used to sweep the ice surface in the path of the stone (see "sweeping") and is also often used as a balancing aid during delivery of the stone.


title: Curling

text: Prior to the 1950s, most curling brooms were made of corn strands and were similar to household brooms of the day. In 1958, Fern Marchessault of Montreal inverted the corn straw in the centre of the broom. This style of corn broom was referred to as "the Blackjack".


title: Curling

text: Artificial brooms made from man-made fabrics rather than corn, such as the "Rink Rat", also became common later during this time period. Prior to the late sixties, "Scottish" curling brushes were used primarily by some of the Scots, as well as by recreational and elderly curlers, as a substitute for corn brooms, since the technique was easier to learn. In the late sixties, competitive curlers from Calgary, Alberta, such as John Mayer, Bruce Stewart, and, later, the world junior championship teams skipped by Paul Gowsell, proved that the curling brush could be just as (or more) effective without all the blisters common to corn broom use. During that time period, there was much debate in competitive curling circles as to which sweeping device was more effective: brush or broom. Eventually, the brush won out with the majority of curlers making the switch to the less costly and more efficient brush. Today, brushes have replaced traditional corn brooms at every level of curling; it is rare now to see a curler using a corn broom on a regular basis.


title: Curling

text: Curling brushes may have fabric, hog hair, or horsehair heads. Modern curling brush handles are usually hollow tubes made of fibreglass or carbon fibre instead of a solid length of wooden dowel. These hollow tube handles are lighter and stronger than wooden handles, allowing faster sweeping and also enabling more downward force to be applied to the broom head with reduced shaft flex.


title: Curling

text: New "directional fabric" brooms were introduced in 2014. Dubbed the "broomgate" controversy, they were able to better navigate the path of a curling stone than existing brooms. Players were worried that these brooms would alter the fundamentals of the sport by reducing the level of skill required, accusing them of giving players an unfair advantage, and at least thirty-four elite teams signed a statement pledging not to use them. The new brooms were temporarily banned by the World Curling Federation and Curling Canada for the 2015–2016 season. As a result of the "broomgate" controversy, as of 2016, only one standardized brush head is approved by the World Curling Federation for competitive play.


title: Curling

text: Curling shoes are similar to ordinary athletic shoes except for special soles; the "slider shoe" (usually known as a "slider") is designed for the sliding foot and the "gripper shoe" (usually known as a "gripper") for the foot that kicks off from the hack.


title: Curling

text: The "slider" is designed to slide and typically has a Teflon sole. It is worn by the thrower during delivery from the hack and by sweepers or the skip to glide down the ice when sweeping or otherwise traveling down the sheet quickly. Stainless steel and "red brick" sliders with lateral blocks of PVC on the sole are also available as alternatives to Teflon. Most shoes have a full-sole sliding surface, but some shoes have a sliding surface covering only the outline of the shoe and other enhancements with the full-sole slider. Some shoes have small disc sliders covering the front and heel portions or only the front portion of the foot, which allow more flexibility in the sliding foot for curlers playing with tuck deliveries. When a player is not throwing, the player's slider shoe can be temporarily rendered non-slippery by using a slip-on gripper. Ordinary athletic shoes may be converted to sliders by using a step-on or slip-on Teflon slider or by applying electrical or gaffer tape directly to the sole or over a piece of cardboard. This arrangement often suits casual or beginning players.


title: Curling

text: The "gripper" is worn by the thrower on the foot that kicks off from the hack during delivery and is designed to grip the ice. It may have a normal athletic shoe sole or a special layer of rubbery material applied to the sole of a thickness to match the sliding shoe. The toe of the hack foot shoe may also have a rubberised coating on the top surface or a flap that hangs over the toe to reduce wear on the top of the shoe as it drags on the ice behind the thrower.


title: Curling

text: The purpose of a game is to score points by getting stones closer to the house centre, or the "button", than the other team's stones. Players from either team alternate in taking shots from the far side of the sheet. An end is complete when all eight rocks from each team have been delivered, a total of sixteen stones. If the teams are tied at the end of regulation, often extra ends are played to break the tie. The winner is the team with the highest score after all ends have been completed (see Scoring below). A game may be conceded if winning the game is infeasible.


title: Curling

text: International competitive games are generally ten ends, so most of the national championships that send a representative to the World Championships or Olympics also play ten ends. However, there is a movement on the World Curling Tour to make the games only eight ends. Most tournaments on that tour are eight ends, as are the vast majority of recreational games.


title: Curling

text: In international competition, each side is given 73 minutes to complete all of its throws. Each team is also allowed two minute-long timeouts per 10-end game. If extra ends are required, each team is allowed 10 minutes of playing time to complete its throws and one added 60-second timeout for each extra end. However, the "thinking time" system, in which the delivering team's game timer stops as soon as the shooter's rock crosses the t-line during the delivery, is becoming more popular, especially in Canada. This system allows each team 38 minutes per 10 ends, or 30 minutes per 8 ends, to make strategic and tactical decisions, with 4 minutes and 30 seconds an end for extra ends. The "thinking time" system was implemented after it was recognized that using shots which take more time for the stones to come to rest was being penalized in terms of the time the teams had available compared to teams which primarily use hits which require far less time per shot.


title: Curling

text: The process of sliding a stone down the sheet is known as the "delivery" or "throw". Players, with the exception of the skip, take turns throwing and sweeping; when one player (e.g., the lead) throws, the players not delivering (the second and third) sweep (see Sweeping, below). When the skip throws, the vice-skip takes their role.


title: Curling

text: The "skip", or the captain of the team, determines the desired stone placement and the required "weight", "turn", and "line" that will allow the stone to stop there. The placement will be influenced by the tactics at this point in the game, which may involve taking out, blocking, or tapping another stone.


title: Curling

text: The skip may communicate the "weight", "turn", "line," and other tactics by calling or tapping a broom on the ice. In the case of a takeout, guard, or a tap, the skip will indicate the stones involved.


title: Curling

text: Before delivery, the running surface of the stone is wiped clean and the path across the ice swept with the broom if necessary, since any dirt on the bottom of a stone or in its path can alter the trajectory and ruin the shot. Intrusion by a foreign object is called a "pick-up" or "pick".


title: Curling

text: The thrower starts from the "hack". The thrower's "gripper" shoe (with the non-slippery sole) is positioned against one of the hacks; for a right-handed curler the right foot is placed against the left hack and vice versa for a left-hander. The thrower, now "in the hack", lines the body up with shoulders square to the skip's broom at the far end for "line".


title: Curling

text: The stone is placed in front of the foot now in the hack. Rising slightly from the hack, the thrower pulls the stone back (some older curlers may actually raise the stone in this backward movement) then lunges smoothly out from the hack pushing the stone ahead while the slider foot is moved in front of the gripper foot, which trails behind. The thrust from this lunge determines the "weight", and hence the distance the stone will travel. Balance may be assisted by a broom held in the free hand with the back of the broom down so that it slides. One older writer suggests the player keep "a basilisk glance" at the mark.


title: Curling

text: There are two common types of delivery currently, the typical flat-foot delivery and the Manitoba tuck delivery where the curler slides on the front ball of his foot.


title: Curling

text: When the player releases the stone, a rotation (called the "turn)" is imparted by a slight clockwise or counter-clockwise twist of the handle from around the two or ten o'clock position to the twelve o'clock on release. A typical rate of turn is about rotations before coming to a rest.


title: Curling

text: The stone must be released before its front edge crosses the near hog line. In major tournaments, the "Eye on the Hog" sensor is commonly used to enforce this rule. The sensor is in the handle of the stone and will indicate whether the stone was released before the near hog line. The lights on the stone handle will either light up green, indicating that the stone has been legally thrown, or red, in which case the illegally thrown stone will be immediately pulled from play instead of waiting for the stone to come to rest.


title: Curling

text: The stone must clear the far hog line or else be removed from play ("hogged"); an exception is made if a stone fails to come to rest beyond the far hog line after rebounding from a stone in play just past the hog line.


title: Curling

text: After the stone is delivered, its trajectory is influenced by the two sweepers under instruction from the skip. Sweeping is done for several reasons: to make the stone travel farther, to decrease the amount of curl, and to clean debris from the stone's path. Sweeping is able to make the stone travel farther and straighter by slightly melting the ice under the brooms, thus decreasing the friction as the stone travels across that part of the ice. The stones curl more as they slow down, so sweeping early in travel tends to increase distance as well as straighten the path, and sweeping after sideways motion is established can increase the sideways distance.


title: Curling

text: One of the basic technical aspects of curling is knowing when to sweep. When the ice in front of the stone is swept a stone will usually travel both farther and straighter, and in some situations one of those is not desirable. For example, a stone may be traveling too fast (said to have too much weight) but require sweeping to prevent curling into another stone. The team must decide which is better: getting by the other stone but traveling too far, or hitting the stone.


title: Curling

text: Much of the yelling that goes on during a curling game is the skip and sweepers exchanging information about the stone's "line" and "weight" and deciding whether to sweep. The skip evaluates the path of the stone and calls to the sweepers to sweep as necessary to maintain the intended track. The sweepers themselves are responsible for judging the weight of the stone, ensuring that the length of travel is correct and communicating the weight of the stone back to the skip. Many teams use a "number system" to communicate in which of 10 zones the sweepers estimate the stone will stop. Some sweepers use stopwatches to time the stone from the back line or tee line to the nearest hog line to aid in estimating how far the stone will travel.


title: Curling

text: Usually, the two sweepers will be on opposite sides of the stone's path, although depending on which side the sweepers' strengths lie this may not always be the case. Speed and pressure are vital to sweeping. In gripping the broom, one hand should be one third of the way from the top (non-brush end) of the handle while the other hand should be one third of the way from the head of the broom. The angle of the broom to the ice should be such that the most force possible can be exerted on the ice. The precise amount of pressure may vary from relatively light brushing ("just cleaning" - to ensure debris will not alter the stone's path) to maximum-pressure scrubbing.


title: Curling

text: Sweeping is allowed anywhere on the ice up to the "tee line"; once the leading edge of a stone crosses the tee line only one player may sweep it. Additionally, if a stone is behind the tee line one player from the opposing team is allowed to sweep it. This is the only case that a stone may be swept by an opposing team member. In international rules, this player must be the skip, but if the skip is throwing, then the sweeping player must be the third.


title: Curling

text: Occasionally, players may accidentally touch a stone with their broom or a body part. This is often referred to as "burning" a stone. Players touching a stone in such a manner are expected to call their own infraction as a matter of good sportsmanship. Touching a stationary stone when no stones are in motion (there is no delivery in progress) is not an infraction as long as the stone is struck in such a manner that its position is not altered, and this is a common way for the skip to indicate a stone that is to be taken out.


title: Curling

text: When a stone is touched when stones are in play, the remedies vary between leaving the stones as they end up after the touch, replacing the stones as they would have been if no stone were touched, or removal of the touched stone from play. In non-officiated league play, the skip of the non-offending team has the final say on where the stones are placed after the infraction.


title: Curling

text: Many different types of shots are used to carefully place stones for strategic or tactical reasons; they fall into three fundamental categories as follows:


title: Curling

text: Guards are thrown in front of the house in the "free guard zone", usually to protect a stone or to make the opposing team's shot difficult. Guard shots include the "centre-guard", on the centreline, and the "corner-guards" to the left or right sides of the centre line. See "Free Guard Zone" below.


title: Curling

text: Draws are thrown only to reach the house. Draw shots include "raise", "come-around", and "freeze" shots.


title: Curling

text: Takeouts are intended to remove stones from play and include the "peel", "hit-and-roll", and "double" shots.


title: Curling

text: The "free guard zone" is the area of the curling sheet between the hog line and tee line, excluding the house. Until five stones have been played (three from the side without hammer and two from the side with hammer), stones in the free guard zone may not be removed by an opponent's stone, although they can be moved within the playing area. If a stone in the free guard zone is knocked out of play, it is placed back in the position it was in before the shot was thrown and the opponent's stone is removed from play. This rule is known as the "five-rock rule" or the "free guard zone rule" (previous versions of the free guard zone rule only limited removing guards from play in the first three or four rocks).


title: Curling

text: This rule, a relatively recent addition to curling, was added in response to a strategy by teams of gaining a lead in the game and then "peeling" all of the opponents' stones (knocking them out of play at an angle that caused the shooter's stone to also roll out of play, leaving no stones on the ice). By knocking all stones out the opponents could at best score one point, if they had the last stone of the end (called the hammer). If the team peeling the rocks had the hammer they could peel rock after rock which would "blank the end" (leave the end scoreless), keeping the last rock advantage for another end. This strategy had developed (mostly in Canada) as ice-makers had become skilled at creating a predictable ice surface and newer brushes allowed greater control over the rock. While a sound strategy, this made for an unexciting game. Observers at the time noted that if two teams equally skilled in the peel game faced each other on good ice, the outcome of the game would be predictable from who won the coin flip to have last rock (or had earned it in the schedule) at the beginning of the game. The 1990 Brier (Canadian men's championship) was considered by many curling fans as boring to watch because of the amount of peeling and the quick adoption of the free guard zone rule the following year reflected how disliked this aspect of the game had become.


title: Curling

text: The free guard zone rule was originally called the Modified Moncton Rule and was developed from a suggestion made by Russ Howard for the Moncton 100 cashspiel in Moncton, New Brunswick, in January 1990. "Howard's Rule" (later known as the Moncton Rule), used for the tournament and based on a practice drill his team used, had the first four rocks in play unable to be removed no matter where they were at any time during the end. This method of play was altered by restricting the area in which a stone was protected to the free guard zone only for the first four rocks thrown and adopted as a four-rock free guard zone rule for international competition shortly after. Canada kept to the traditional rules until a three-rock free guard zone rule was adopted for the 1993–94 season. After several years of having the three-rock rule used for the Canadian championships and the winners then having to adjust to the four-rock rule in the World Championships, the Canadian Curling Association adopted the four-rock free guard zone in the 2002–2003 season.


title: Curling

text: One strategy that has been developed by curlers in response to the free guard zone (Kevin Martin from Alberta is one of the best examples) is the "tick" game, where a shot is made attempting to knock (tick) the guard to the side, far enough that it is difficult or impossible to use but still remaining in play while the shot itself goes out of play. The effect is functionally identical to peeling the guard but significantly harder, as a shot that hits the guard too hard (knocking it out of play) results in its being replaced, while not hitting it hard enough can result in it still being tactically useful for the opposition. There is also a greater chance that the shot will miss the guard entirely because of the greater accuracy required to make the shot. Because of the difficulty of making this type of shot, only the best teams will normally attempt it, and it does not dominate the game the way the peel formerly did. Steve Gould from Manitoba popularized ticks played across the face of the guard stone. These are easier to make because they impart less speed on the object stone, therefore increasing the chance that it remains in play even if a bigger chunk of it is hit.


title: Curling

text: With the tick shot reducing the effectiveness of the four-rock rule, the Grand Slam of Curling series of bonspiels adopted a five-rock rule in 2014. In 2017, the five-rock rule was adopted by the World Curling Federation and member organizations for official play, beginning in the 2018–19 season.


title: Curling

text: The last rock in an end is called the "hammer", and throwing the hammer gives a team a tactical advantage. Before the game, teams typically decide who gets the hammer in the first end either by chance (such as a coin toss), by a "draw-to-the-button" contest, where a representative of each team shoots to see who gets closer to the centre of the rings, or, particularly in tournament settings like the Winter Olympics, by a comparison of each team's win–loss record. In all subsequent ends, the team that did not score in the preceding end gets to throw second, thus having the hammer. In the event that neither team scores, called a "blanked end", the hammer remains with the same team. Naturally, it is easier to score points with the hammer than without; the team with the hammer generally tries to score two or more points. If only one point is possible, the skip may try to avoid scoring at all in order to retain the hammer the next end, giving the team another chance to use the hammer advantage to try to score two points. Scoring without the hammer is commonly referred to as "stealing", or "a steal", and is much more difficult.


title: Curling

text: Curling is a game of strategy, tactics, and skill. The strategy depends on the team's skill, the opponent's skill, the conditions of the ice, the score of the game, how many ends remain and whether the team has last-stone advantage (the "hammer"). A team may play an end aggressively or defensively. Aggressive playing will put a lot of stones in play by throwing mostly draws; this makes for an exciting game and although risky the rewards can be great. Defensive playing will throw a lot of hits preventing a lot of stones in play; this tends to be less exciting and less risky. A good drawing team will usually opt to play aggressively, while a good hitting team will opt to play defensively.


title: Curling

text: If a team does not have the hammer in an end, it will opt to try to clog up the four-foot zone in the house to deny the opposing team access to the button. This can be done by throwing "centre line" guards in front of the house on the centre line, which can be tapped into the house later or drawn around. If a team has the hammer, they will try to keep this four-foot zone free so that they have access to the button area at all times. A team with the hammer may throw a "corner guard" as their first stone of an end placed in front of the house but outside the four-foot zone to utilize the free guard zone. Corner guards are key for a team to score two points in an end, because they can either draw around it later or hit and roll behind it, making the opposing team's shot to remove it more difficult.


title: Curling

text: Ideally, the strategy in an end for a team with the hammer is to score two points or more. Scoring one point is often a wasted opportunity, as they will then lose last-stone advantage for the next end. If a team cannot score two points, they will often attempt to "blank an end" by removing any leftover opposition stones and rolling out; or, if there are no opposition stones, just throwing the stone through the house so that no team scores any points, and the team with the hammer can try again the next end to score two or more with it. Generally, a team without the hammer would want to either force the team with the hammer to only one point, so that they can get the hammer back, or "steal" the end by scoring one or more points of their own.


title: Curling

text: Large leads are often defended by displacing the opponent's stones to reduce their opportunity to score multiple points. However, a comfortably leading team that leaves their own stones in play becomes vulnerable as the opponent can draw around guard stones, stones in the house can be "tapped back" if they are in front of the tee line, or "frozen onto" if they are behind the tee line. A frozen stone is placed in front of and touching the opponent's stone and is difficult to remove. At this point, a team may opt for "peels"; throws with a lot of "weight" that can move opposition stones out of play.


title: Curling

text: It is common at any level for a losing team to terminate the match before all ends are completed if it believes it no longer has a realistic chance of winning. Competitive games end once the losing team has "run out of rocks"—that is, once it has fewer stones in play and available for play than the number of points needed to tie the game.


title: Curling

text: Most decisions about rules are left to the skips, although in official tournaments, decisions may be left to the officials. However, all scoring disputes are handled by the vice skip. No players other than the vice skip from each team should be in the house while score is being determined. In tournament play, the most frequent circumstance in which a decision has to be made by someone other than the vice skip is the failure of the vice skips to agree on which stone is closest to the button. An independent official (supervisor at Canadian and World championships) then measures the distances using a specially designed device that pivots at the centre of the button. When no independent officials are available, the vice skips measure the distances.


title: Curling

text: The winner is the team having the highest number of accumulated points at the completion of ten ends. Points are scored at the conclusion of each of these ends as follows: when each team has thrown its eight stones, the team with the stone closest to the button wins that end; the winning team is then awarded one point for each of its own stones lying closer to the button than the opponent's closest stone.


title: Curling

text: Only stones that are "in the house" are considered in the scoring. A stone is in the house if it lies within the zone or any portion of its edge lies over the edge of the ring. Since the bottom of the stone is rounded, a stone just barely in the house will not have any actual contact with the ring, which will pass under the rounded edge of the stone, but it still counts. This type of stone is known as a "biter".


title: Curling

text: It may not be obvious to the eye which of the two rocks is closer to the button (centre) or if a rock is actually biting or not. There are specialized devices to make these determinations, but these cannot be brought out until after an end is completed. Therefore, a team may make strategic decisions during an end based on assumptions of rock position that turn out to be incorrect.


title: Curling

text: The score is marked on a scoreboard, of which there are two types; the baseball type and the club scoreboard.


title: Curling

text: The baseball-style scoreboard was created for televised games for audiences not familiar with the club scoreboard. The "ends" are marked by columns 1 through 10 (or 11 for the possibility of an extra end to break ties) plus an additional column for the total. Below this are two rows, one for each team, containing the team's score for that end and their total score in the right-hand column.


title: Curling

text: The club scoreboard is traditional and used in most curling clubs. Scoring on this board only requires the use of (up to) 11 digit cards, whereas with baseball-type scoring an unknown number of multiples of the digits (especially low digits like "1") may be needed. The numbered centre row represents various possible scores, and the numbers placed in the team rows represent the end in which that team achieved that cumulative score. If the red team scores three points in the first end (called a "three-ender"), then a 1 (indicating the first end) is placed beside the number 3 in the red row. If they score two more in the second end, then a 2 will be placed beside the 5 in the red row, indicating that the red team has five points in total (3+2). This scoreboard works because only one team can get points in an end. However, some confusion may arise if neither team scores points in an end, this is called a "blank end". The blank end numbers are usually listed in the farthest column on the right in the row of the team that has the "hammer" (last rock advantage), or on a special spot for blank ends.


title: Curling

text: The following example illustrates the difference between the two types. The example illustrates the men's final at the 2006 Winter Olympics.


title: Curling

text: Eight points – all the rocks thrown by one team counting – is the highest score possible in an end, and is known as an "eight-ender" or "snowman". Scoring an eight-ender against a competent team is very difficult; in curling, it is the equivalent of pitching a perfect game in baseball. Probably the best-known snowman came at the 2006 Players' Championships. Future (2007) World Champion Kelly Scott scored eight points in one of her games against 1998 World bronze medalist Cathy King.


title: Curling

text: Competition teams are normally named after the skip, for example, Team Martin after skip Kevin Martin. Amateur league players can (and do) creatively name their teams, but when in competition (a bonspiel) the official team will have a standard name.


title: Curling

text: Top curling championships are typically played by all-male or all-female teams. It is known as mixed curling when a team consists of two men and two women. For many years, in the absence of world championship or Olympic mixed curling events, national championships (of which the Canadian Mixed Curling Championship was the most prominent) were the highest-level mixed curling competitions. However, a European Mixed Curling Championship was inaugurated in 2005, a World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship was established in 2008, and the European Mixed Championship was replaced with the World Mixed Curling Championship in 2015. A mixed tournament was held at the Olympic level for the first time in 2018, although it was a doubles tournament, not a four-person.


title: Curling

text: Curling is played in many countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom (especially Scotland), the United States, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, and Japan, all of which compete in the world championships.


title: Curling

text: Curling has been depicted by many artists including: George Harvey, John Levack, The Dutch School, Charles Martin Hardie, John Elliot Maguire, John McGhie, and John George Brown.


title: Curling

text: Curling is particularly popular in Canada. Improvements in ice making and changes in the rules to increase scoring and promote complex strategy have increased the already high popularity of the sport in Canada, and large television audiences watch annual curling telecasts, especially the Scotties Tournament of Hearts (the national championship for women), the Tim Hortons Brier (the national championship for men), and the women's and men's world championships.


title: Curling

text: Despite the Canadian province of Manitoba's small population (ranked 5th of 10 Canadian provinces), Manitoban teams have won the Brier more times than teams from any other province, except for Alberta. The Tournament of Hearts and the Brier are contested by provincial and territorial champions, and the world championships by national champions.


title: Curling

text: Curling is the provincial sport of Saskatchewan. From there, Ernie Richardson and his family team dominated Canadian and international curling during the late 1950s and early 1960s and have been considered to be the best male curlers of all time. Sandra Schmirler led her team to the first-ever gold medal in women's curling in the 1998 Winter Olympics. When she died two years later from cancer, over 15,000 people attended her funeral, and it was broadcast on national television.


title: Curling

text: More so than in many other team sports, good sportsmanship, often referred to as the "Spirit of Curling", is an integral part of curling. The Spirit of Curling also leads teams to congratulate their opponents for making a good shot, strong sweeping, or spectacular form. Perhaps most importantly, the Spirit of Curling dictates that one never cheers mistakes, misses, or gaffes by one's opponent (unlike most team sports), and one should not celebrate one's own good shots during the game beyond modest acknowledgement of the shot such as a head nod, fist bump, or thumbs-up gesture. Modest congratulation, however, may be exchanged between winning team members after the match. On-the-ice celebration is usually reserved for the winners of a major tournament after winning the final game of the championship. It is completely unacceptable to attempt to throw opposing players off their game by way of negative comment, distraction, or heckling.


title: Curling

text: A match traditionally begins with players shaking hands with and saying "good curling" or "have a pleasant game" to each member of the opposing team. It is also traditional in some areas for the winning team to buy the losing team a drink after the game. Even at the highest levels of play, players are expected to call their own fouls.


title: Curling

text: It is not uncommon for a team to concede a curling match after it believes it no longer has any hope of winning. Concession is an honourable act and does not carry the stigma associated with quitting. It also allows for more socializing. To concede a match, members of the losing team offer congratulatory handshakes to the winning team. Thanks, wishes of future good luck, and hugs are usually exchanged between the teams. To continue playing when a team has no realistic chance of winning can be seen as a breach of etiquette.


title: Curling

text: Curling has been adapted for wheelchair users and people otherwise unable to throw the stone from the hack. These curlers may use a device known as a "delivery stick". The cue holds on to the handle of the stone and is then pushed along by the curler. At the end of delivery, the curler pulls back on the cue, which releases it from the stone. The Canadian Curling Association "Rules of Curling" allows the use of a delivery stick in club play but does not permit it in championships.


title: Curling

text: The delivery stick was specifically invented for elderly curlers in Canada in 1999. In early 2016 an international initiative started to allow use of the delivery sticks by players over 60 years of age in World Curling Federation Senior Championships, as well as in any projected Masters (60+) Championship that develops in the future.


title: Curling

text: The ice in the game may be "fast (keen)" or "slow". If the ice is keen, a rock will travel farther with a given amount of weight (throwing force) on it. The speed of the ice is measured in seconds. One such measure, known as "hog-to-hog" time, is the speed of the stone and is the time in seconds the rock takes from the moment it crosses the near hog line until it crosses the far hog line. If this number is lower, the rock is moving faster, so again low numbers mean more speed. The ice in a match will be somewhat consistent and thus this measure of speed can also be used to measure how far down the ice the rock will travel. Once it is determined that a rock taking (for example) 13 seconds to go from hog line to hog line will stop on the tee line, the curler can know that if the hog-to-hog time is matched by a future stone, that stone will likely stop at approximately the same location. As an example, on keen ice, common times might be 16 seconds for guards, 14 seconds for draws, and 8 seconds for peel weight.


title: Curling

text: "The back line to hog line speed" is used principally by sweepers to get an initial sense of the weight of a stone. As an example, on keen ice, common times might be 4.0 seconds for guards, 3.8 seconds for draws, 3.2 for normal hit weight, and 2.9 seconds for peel weight. Especially at the club level, this metric can be misleading, due to amateurs sometimes pushing stones on release, causing the stone to travel faster than the back-to-hog speed.


title: Hyuna

text: Kim Hyun-ah (born June 6, 1992), better known by the mononym Hyuna (stylized HyunA), is a South Korean singer-songwriter, rapper and model. She debuted as a member of the girl group Wonder Girls in February 2007. After leaving the ensemble shortly after, Hyuna subsequently left JYP Entertainment and joined the girl group 4Minute, under Cube Entertainment. 4Minute debuted in June 2009 and went on to become one of the most popular girl groups in the country. In 2010, Hyuna began a solo career with a style she described as "performance-oriented music". Her solo debut single "Change" charted at number-two on South Korea's Gaon Digital Chart.


title: Hyuna

text: In 2011, Hyuna gained wider public recognition with the release of her first extended play "Bubble Pop!". The title track sold more than three million digital copies and she became the first female K-pop solo artist to reach 100 million views on a single music video on YouTube. Later the same year, she formed the duo Trouble Maker with former Beast member Hyunseung, releasing the hit single "Trouble Maker". In 2012, she appeared in a successful duet rendition of Psy's worldwide hit "Gangnam Style" and later released her second extended play "Melting", which featured the number-one single "Ice Cream". Her next two extended plays "A Talk" and "A+" yielded the successful singles "Red" and "Roll Deep", respectively. Following 4Minute's disbandment in mid-2016, she released her fifth extended play "A'wesome", which was supported by her first concert tour The Queen's Back. In 2017, she was involved in the trio Triple H with Pentagon members Hui and E'Dawn before releasing her sixth extended play "Following".


title: Hyuna

text: In 2018, Hyuna ended her contract with Cube Entertainment after several internal conflicts, and signed with Psy's P Nation the following year. Her first digital single under P Nation "Flower Shower" became her seventh top-ten entry on the US "Billboard" World Digital Song Sales. In 2021, Hyuna released her seventh extended play "I'm Not Cool".


title: Hyuna

text: Hyuna was born on June 6, 1992 in Seoul, South Korea. Her Hanja name is "泫我". However, Hyuna's Chinese teacher told her that it sounded bizarre in Mandarin (, which could be translated as "I weep") and recommended she adopt the characters "泫雅" () as her name for promotional activities in Taiwan, which she agreed to, commenting that "泫雅" sounded adorable. She attended Choongam Middle School and Korea High School of Music and Arts. Hyuna graduated from Konkuk University, in Contemporary Arts, and received special admission into the school.


title: Hyuna

text: In 2006, she was revealed as a member of the JYP Entertainment managed girl group Wonder Girls as the group's main rapper. Hyuna participated in the group's debut mini album "The Wonder Begins", released in February 2007.<ref name="WG/IRONY"></ref> She participated in the group's television show "MTV Wonder Girls" for two seasons, and co-hosted "Show! Music Core" with Wonder Girls' Sohee and Fly to the Sky singer Brian Joo from May 12 – June 30, 2007. Hyuna left Wonder Girls in July, when she was removed by her parents due to their concern over her health, particularly chronic gastroenteritis and fainting spells. In 2008, she joined Cube Entertainment. In May 2009, it was announced that Hyuna would debut as part of the girl group 4Minute.<ref name="JYP/CUBE"></ref> The group debuted with the single "Hot Issue" on June 15.


title: Hyuna

text: Hyuna collaborated with Lee Gi-kwang on the song "2009" for his debut album "First Episode: A New Hero", and also appeared in the music video of his single "Dancing Shoes," which was released on March 30, 2009. On August 13, she rapped for Navi's song "Wasteful Tears" and she also appeared in the music video. Hyuna also featured in Brave Brothers' song "Bittersweet," released August 18. She became part of the "Dream Team Girl Group," a promotional group for Samsung's Anycall phone with Han Seung-yeon, Uee, and Gain. Their first digital single "Tomorrow" was released on October 6, 2009, and the official music video was released on October 12, starring actor Lee Dong-gun. As well, Hyuna released an individual version of the music video which released on October 27. She also participated in the South Korean variety show "Invincible Youth." However, Hyuna left the show due to some scheduling conflicts with her group's overseas promotions on June 11, 2010.


title: Hyuna

text: On January 4, 2010, she released the single "Change", which charted highly on various online charts. The song reached number fourteen on the Gaon 2010 digital yearly chart with 2,469,354 copies sold. Ten days later, on January 14, the "Change" music video was flagged with a 19+ rating by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family for being inappropriate for minors. Cube Entertainment stated that the music video would be re-edited and submitted for approval. However, broadcast station SBS, announced the music video would be restricted for a 15+ audience instead, and MBC announced that it would still be viewable for all audiences. Hyuna's "Change" promotions ended in March 2010. She released a few more singles in 2010, including "Love Parade" featuring T-max's member Park Yun-hwa, "Outlaw in the Wild" featuring Nassun, and produced by E-Tribe. Hyuna also participated in G.NA's duet single "Say You Love Me", for which she wrote the rap lyrics. In October 2010, she made a cameo appearance in the thriller film "Midnight FM" with 4Minute member Jihyun on October 14, 2010.