The sights and sounds of curling at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games

It's a fair bit louder than you think it might be, curling.

The sound doesn't come from the 19-kilogram lumps of granite soothingly sliding across the ice, nor the hefty yet satisfying clunk as one piece of stone hits another.

Nor the sweeping, which barely registers in truth. In fact, it's barely audible, no matter how vigorous it gets.

What is most noticeable is all the shouting.

One of the only Winter Olympic sports that could not be described as extreme, curling is instead a fascinating tactical battle between two teams of four.

Each team has eight stones that they slide down towards a target, called the house, much in the same way that bowlers try to get their bowls close to the jack.

They do this 10 times in natural breaks called ends.

The team that has the most stones closest to the centre of the house gets a point for each stone that's closer than the other team's best stone.

It's similar to bowls in that respect.

All the yelling is not.

The reason for all the shouting is, of course, the teamwork and tactical aspect that is so intrinsic to the sport.

Teams group together after almost every stone to assess or reassess their tactical approach to each end.

They then split up to fulfil their designated roles.

One team member, often the skip or team leader, stands at the scoring end of the ice, pointing to where they want to stone to end up, be it an exact spot on the ice, or a point on a particular stone that will cause it to move.

The other three team members are responsible for it getting there.

The thrower pushes off from the hack — a piece of rubber stuck in the ice — and slides along on one knee, holding the stone by its handle and then releasing it before they pass a red line in the ice called the hog line, which is 83cm from