At first glance, curling looks like the Olympic sport anyone could do.
There’s no triple lutzes, no ski gates to navigate at high speed. From the couch, it can feel like a sport you could figure out within a few minutes of stepping onto the ice.
The reality is heavier. Literally. The stone alone weighs 42 pounds. And the footing is nothing like it appears on television.
“People think we’re on skates or something,” University of Washington grad Luc Violette says. “But basically we’re on two different shoes.”
One shoe is soft rubber, designed to grip the ice. The other is coated in Teflon — totally slick with no edges to lean on.
“You have to balance perfectly. You can slip in any direction,” Violette says.
Each shot begins like a launch out of a starting block, followed by a deep lunge — the curler’s full weight committed to a single point of contact as the stone is released.
“The more skilled you become, the more physically demanding it gets,” he says.
Violette grew up in Granite Falls, Washington, where he first picked up curling at age 5. His father, Tom Violette, is a two-time national champion who represented the United States at two World Curling Championships and earned a bronze medal at the 1992 World Men’s Championship.
Luc learned curling under his father’s watchful eye at Granite Curling Club in Seattle — one of the Pacific Northwest’s few dedicated curling facilities and a place where many local players first find the game. Following in his father’s footsteps, Luc eventually committed to curling full time, building a résumé that includes five United States Junior Championship titles and silver medals at both the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics and the 2017 World Junior Championships.
Violette earned his degree in civil engineering at the University of Washington, navigating his education during the disruptions of the pandemic. He credits the UW civil engineering department — and specific faculty members — for shaping both his academic path and his sense of connection during that period.
“There’s a lot of great people,” he says, recalling the early “gauntlet” of engineering coursework. He points to professors who, despite remote learning, went out of their way to create meaningful experiences. One instructor filmed demonstrations from a concrete lab so students could see the work up close. Another professor shared a personal connection through curling, recognizing Violette from class and striking up conversations that extended beyond assignments.
“UW was an awesome experience for me,” Violette says.
During his time at the UW, he met his fiancée, Kyla, in a civil engineering capstone course, where project teams were formed in Zoom breakout rooms. What began as late-night collaboration on a construction project grew into a partnership that eventually took them to Minnesota, where Violette has been training for his shot at Olympic glory.
“She kind of picked up her roots and moved out here,” he says. “I really owe her a lot.”
In addition to preparing for the Olympics, Violette works full time as a civil design engineer — a balance that shapes how he approaches the sport.
“A good curler is just a well-rounded individual,” he says, echoing a refrain from his coach. “Most of the other countries competing in the Olympics are full-time curlers. They’re getting government funding to do it.”
The tradeoffs are real. Time off is scarce. Travel outside of competition is limited. “All of my PTO goes into curling,” he says, laughing slightly. “There’s definitely some personal life lost.”
Violette and his teammates are heading first to Switzerland for training before making their way to Cortina, Italy, where curling competition will take place several hours from Milan.
Violette’s team is ranked sixth in the world — the highest an American men’s squad has ever been heading into an Olympic Games, in a field long dominated by European and Canadian teams.
At that highest level, Violette says, the sport reveals what matters most.
“If you’re trying to compete at the Olympics — it’s teamwork above all else,” he says. “That’s where all the years of practice make the biggest difference.”
You can follow Luc Violette as he competes with the U.S. Men’s Curling team at the 2026 Milan–Cortina Winter Olympics. Men’s curling runs February 11–21, 2026, with qualifying curling rounds starting as early as February 4.
In the U.S., curling coverage will be available across NBCUniversal platforms. All matches will stream live on Peacock, with select sessions airing on CNBC and other NBCUniversal broadcast and cable networks.