Like a new home. Curling.

Some goals seem distant. It would be easy to succumb to the impression that since the Summer Olympics are three quarters of a year away (well, hopefully), the Winter Olympics must be a long time away. February 2022, however, is only 15 months away. And that is still the date for the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. The curling participants for that extraordinary sporting event will be decided in March 2021 at the Women's World Championships, and then in a supplementary qualifier sometime in November or December of that year. The first date in particular is actually already "around the corner". The Czech women's team (Kubešková, A. Baudyšová, Vinšová, Kolčevská, M. Baudyšová) will represent the Czech Republic at the World Championships. And that's why we are now in Sweden, where we are training hard in two phases in the Karlstad hall, so that we don't lose our slip, technical skills, feeling, sense of strategic game management and accurate speed estimations. Above all, we want to keep a warm relationship with movement, sport and curling in particular. We have chosen the Scandic Hotel on the outskirts of town as our base and commute daily by bike or on foot to the hall two kilometres away. The atmosphere in Karlstad, a town of almost 90,000, is quiet to look at. The shops are open, and now and then someone with a veil appears. Disinfectant is available almost everywhere, and horizontal signs offer distance. Swedes, however, have no problem perceiving the two-metre distance and keep it almost automatically. The hotel's rich and tasty buffet breakfast is recommended to be put on a plate with the help of disposable gloves, which are provided to guests. The pool is closed, but the sauna is working. The town is perfect for cycling, so we make ample use of the bikes that are set up at the hotel. The path to the lobby leads past the Brigade Museum, where David Cerny's "Pink Tank" exhibit is currently installed, with education regarding the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution. As if on cue, lest we forget where we come from. We are thinking of our loved ones back home, and once we replenish our curling energy on the local ice, we will return home and share it with you.