While some may view it as one of the more trivial sports of the Winter Olympics [1], I've always found curling fascinating to watch. And after learning just how heavy those curling stones are — the ones Olympians so effortlessly glide across the ice — I'm even more impressed. Because let me tell you, they're not light.

Under the current Olympic guidelines, curling stones must weigh at least 38 pounds [2] and no more than 44 pounds; the average Olympic stone weighs about 42 pounds. Imagine throwing that across the ice. It's a serious arm workout, right? Commonly referred to as rocks in the curling community, curling stones are made of a unique and very dense, polished granite that is only quarried in Ailsa Craig, an island off the coast of Scotland.

Coined "the roaring game" [3] after the thundering sound the stones make when gliding across pebbled ice, curling consists of two four-player teams who compete on a rectangular, artificial ice rink that measures roughly 42 meters by four meters. At the Winter Olympics, opponents' curling stones are distinguished by red and yellow coloured handles.

Because curling is a team sport, there are fewer Olympic medals [4] up for grabs. There will be a total of three events: men's, women's, and mixed doubles. All events follow the same competition format [5], which opens with a preliminary round-robin tournament where all 10 teams — or eight teams for mixed doubles — play against one another. From there, the top four teams advance to the semifinals, where the first-place team plays the lowest-ranked team while the middle two battle it out. The winners then square off in the gold medal match. The 2022 Winter Olympics kick off on Feb. 4 [6].