2 April 2026
Olympic Memories: Lukas Klima and Marc Muskatewitz share their Olympic debut experiences
It didn’t take long for Germany’s Marc Muskatewitz to realise that being at the Olympic Games was a bit different from any other championship he’s played in.
He recalls, “We went to the opening ceremony on special athlete buses, and we had police in front of us and police behind us, to protect us, with lights flashing. It was amazing to see camouflage cars all around us, and it made me think ‘this is a big thing’.”
And while Marc feels that in and around the field of play, curling at the Olympics is the same as curling anywhere else, that’s where the similarity ended.
“It was an amazing feeling” he says. “Curling is so small in Germany, so to be on an Olympic stage like that was special.”
“All around us it was totally different. We had so many fans — German fans as well. We had media sessions afterwards like we’ve never had before — we really enjoyed that.”
And Marc’s fond memories go beyond the ice sheet and the arena, “The most fun part was meeting people outside at the coffee stands. We had such good weather. We met so many people from all different countries. And a big part of that was exchanging pins. That was the running joke, ‘have you changed one more pin than me?’, and that’s what helped us speak to more people.”
Not surprisingly, Czechia’s Lukas Klima shared a lot of Marc’s experiences.
Lukas skipped the first-ever Czech men’s team to make it to the Olympic stage and he says, “It was a big deal that we were the first Czech men’s team at the Olympics. Obviously, we were in the spotlight. Curling gets a lot of TV coverage, and everybody was following curling.”
And he adds, “we enjoyed ourselves a lot. It was pretty cool and it was great fun.”
But even before the Olympic Games, Lukas has been a fan of Cortina, “I really like Cortina. I’ve been there playing in summer bonspiels. It’s a really, really nice place to be, with the mountains and the venue was absolutely amazing. The rink is beautiful.”
Talking about playing in the Olympics there he says, “What really surprised us was there was a lot of Czech fans. We were really surprised. We knew our friends from the curling community would come, but there were a lot of fans there who just wanted to see us, cheering for us. It was different. We’re used to playing in front of big crowds, but not a crowd that was cheering for us so hard. It was probably the best experience for us.”
Another experience that Marc and Lukas had in common happened when they both got back home after the Games.
Marc said about his experience on returning home, “Being on the Olympic stage has made a difference for curling in Germany. Actually when we arrived back in my home town of Kempton, there were random people coming up to us. That was the first time that people recognised us in the street just to ask us, ‘weren’t you at the Olympic Games?’, that was really nice.”
And Lukas had the same thing happen to him, “I was surprised about how many people were following us. I came back home and I’d be out walking my dog and people would come up to say ‘we were watching you’. And they were not just watching, they were following, asking me about situations in the games, asking me why I played this or that shot… that was pretty amazing and a big surprise.”
Both of these experiences — in two different countries — are further examples of how, at the Olympic Games, curling captures attention world-wide.
It just goes to show, while the Olympic Games might be a great benefit for curling, curling is also a great benefit for the Olympic Games.
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