Women's curling is sure to receive a lot more exposure this year, thanks to a new international calendar that features nude and scantily clad female curlers.
The calendar is the brainchild of Ana Arce, a photographer who skipped the Andorran women's team for three seasons before moving to Spain this year.
"I think it's going to change the image of the sport, which is not so nice," Arce, who also poses in the calendar, told The Canadian Press. "I've been playing for eight years and there are so many beautiful girls playing and nobody knows it. I doubt that anyone is going to be shocked and everybody's going to enjoy that and like it."
All proceeds will be split between the teams of the curlers who pose in the calendar, called the Ana Arce Team Sponsorship Calendar 2006.
Arce contacted only women she knew through her years in curling, including two Canadians, Melanie Robillard of Ottawa and Lynsay Ryan of Kelowna, B.C., the daughter of two-time world champion skip and 2006 Olympic hopeful Pat Ryan.
Ryan, a 21-year-old student at McMaster University in Hamilton, found herself posing in a see-through sarong in the forests of Fussen, Germany, in July.
"I sent him [Pat]an e-mail," Ryan said with a laugh. "I thought it might be better if he read about it and had time to think about it before he replied."
Arce met Lynsay Ryan at a curling clinic in Germany and was surprised the Canadian agreed to be part of it.
"I thought she was going to say no because being Canadian I know it's more difficult," she said. "I think things are different for European girls. We are more open here, a little less shy, I think. But she said yes and she just wanted to check the pictures and everything was okay."
The 12 models represent curling teams from Denmark, Italy, Spain, England, Poland, Germany and Canada.
"Some of the girls showed a little bit more, like breasts, because they wanted to," Arce said of the black-and-white photos. "But it is very, very tasteful."
The calendar isn't the first of its kind. The Canadian women's rugby, water polo and cross-country ski teams all have produced similar calendars. On the men's front, there has been beefcake calendars from the men of Australian Rules Football and the Stade Français rugby team in Paris.
Some prominent Canadian female curlers had no problem with the calendar, but weren't interested in participating.
"I couldn't, I'm too shy," said Jennifer Jones, the Scott Tournament of Hearts champion from Winnipeg. "It's very European. If the right people want to do it, I think it's kind of a fun idea and innovative and hopefully it will get curling some publicity."
News of the calendar, which will cost about $25, came a little bit close to home for former Canadian champion Cathy King.
"Somebody came up to our team just last week and said we should do one of those," she said with a chuckle. "I started laughing and said you three go ahead. I'm not doing it. I said to our friend who suggested it, 'Get lost, not a chance.' "
It's not the first time the idea of nudity and curling has hit the news. In April of 2004, former world champion Colleen Jones lamented the problem of getting publicity for women's curling with plans to split the men's and women's championships into separate events.
"I think the women are going to have to curl naked in order to get people out there," she said at the time. "I'm not kidding. You're going to have to hope for an Anna Kournikova to come along to really jazz it up."
The calendar does just that for the sport, Arce said.
"This proves that curlers are athletes," she said. "Strong but graceful, and, of course very beautiful."
News about the calendar seemed to catch Jones off guard yesterday.
"Those words were very prophetic, don't you think?" said the six-time Canadian champion.
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