---
title: "Russians Invent Car Curling, the Next Great Olympic Sport"
description: "Russians crash cars on ice, with style."
date: "2017-03-20"
modified: "2017-03-20"
authors:
  - name: "Kyle Cheromcha"
    job_title: "Editor-in-Chief"
    link: "https://www.thedrive.com/authors/kyle-cheromcha"
url: "https://www.thedrive.com/watch-this/8447/russians-invent-car-curling-the-next-great-olympic-sport"
categories:
  - "News"
  - "Watch This"
tags:
  - "Curling"
  - "russia"
  - "winter"
  - "Winter Sports"
---

# Russians Invent Car Curling, the Next Great Olympic Sport

![](<https://www.thedrive.com/wp-content/uploads/images-by-url-td/content/2017/03/car-curling1.png>)
*\<em\>www.thedrive.com</em>*

Had a good weekend, did you? Knocked a few things off your wrenching to-do list? Went for a spirited drive in the country? Well while we here in America were enjoying our capitalism-sponsored days off, the Russians went ahead and invented a whole new sport - organized car curling, which The Drive expects to be added to the 2022 Winter Games straightaway ([along with car bobsledding](<https://www.thedrive.com/article/8412/watch-this-subaru-wrx-sti-bomb-down-a-bobsled-track>)). And lest you think this is one long joke about black ice, the pictures and video from this weekend's tournament in Yekaterinburg prove we've got a new arena for the sequel to Miracle on Ice.

Curling is already a wonderfully weird sport - like shuffleboard on ice, teams try to get their *stones* to stop closest to the middle of the target or bump an opponent's stone further away. And while these guys aren't the first ones to consider replacing the stones with small cars - both Top Gear Live and Top Gear USA have given it a go - this appears to be the most faithful recreation yet, with entire teams pushing stripped, engine-less [Okas](<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oka_(automobile)>) (steered by one intrepid driver) across a full-size outdoor skating rink and following the standard scoring rules.

Tournament organizer Galina Kirkach, a car insurance agent, [said he was inspired](<https://www.rt.com/viral/381325-curling-russia-oka-cars/>) by the large number of accidents caused by black ice in Russia. He convinced his employer to sponsor the event, which featured four teams of ten and a grand prize of $1,600.

https://youtube.com/embed/u8Cm25VcG2g

The winners had a sound strategy. "We allocated our force right... we knew which car to push first and which at the end, and that's why we won," [Andrey Gubaydullin told](<https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-03-20/car-curling-tournament-russia-inspired-black-ice-accidents/8369250>) the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Hard to argue with that logic.

Unfortunately winter is on the wane, so you won't have much of a chance to practice this season. But that just means you can spend the summer stockpiling old Fiestas and Geo Metros to give the Russians a run for their money next year.

## Author
Overseeing an expert staff of writers and editors from his lair in Los Angeles, Kyle shapes The Drive’s singular approach to covering the automotive industry and car culture. He’s been with the site as a writer since 2017, taking over as editor in 2019. On a daily basis, Kyle is responsible for directing The Drive's editorial news and car review content strategies, setting special coverage priorities, managing complex reporting projects, and ensuring what you read on the page meets our high internal standards for quality and trustworthiness. He is also the executive producer of The Drive's YouTube channel, which was relaunched in February 2024 to great acclaim and has accumulated over 14M new views in its first year back on the scene. He hosts a biweekly series on the channel where he breaks down fascinating and complicated stories from the automotive world.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/kylecheromcha.bsky.social>)  
[Instagram](<https://www.instagram.com/kylecheromcha>)  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kyle-cheromcha-1550248a/>)