With the stroke of a pen, curling becomes North Dakota’s official state sport

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum throws a stone after signing a bill on Thursday, March 23, 2023, to designate curling as the state's official sport.

By Jeremy Turley

March 23, 2023 at 6:40 PM

BISMARCK — North Dakota has an officially designated state flower, beverage and fossil. Now, it has a state sport, too.

Seated on top of a pristine sheet of ice, Gov. Doug Burgum signed legislation Thursday, March 23, to make curling North Dakota’s official sport.

In a pun-laden speech, Burgum told a crowd of about 100 at Bismarck’s Capital Curling Club he was more excited to ink his name to Senate Bill 2229 — a "sweeping" change to state law — than any other proposal this legislative session.

The bill came from an unlikely source: 11-year-old Alaina Schmit, who has been a curler in Bismarck almost half her life.

After finding that North Dakota didn’t have an official state sport, Schmit approached Sen. Sean Cleary, R-Bismarck, about mounting a push to honor curling with the symbolic title. Schmit and fellow middle school curler Etta Knapp testified on behalf of the bill and lobbied lawmakers prior to votes on the legislation.

Alaina Schmit, 11, speaks at a bill signing ceremony where curling was designated as North Dakota's state sport. Schmit, a Bismarck curler, lobbied lawmakers to pass the legislation. — Alaina Schmit, 11, speaks at a bill signing ceremony where curling was designated as North Dakota's state sport on Thursday, March 23, 2023. Schmit, a Bismarck curler, lobbied lawmakers to pass the legislation.

Schmit and Knapp’s engagement with the hard-to-maneuver legislative process shows that the state's future is also its present, Burgum said.

Capital Curling Club President Ben Sand said the spirit of sportsmanship in curling makes it the perfect state sport. Curlers keep “an eye toward compromise rather than fisticuffs” and wish their opponents well regardless of what happened in the match, he noted.

Historical evidence suggests curling, sometimes referred to as chess on ice, dates back to at least the 1500s in Scotland and the Netherlands.

Back then, the pastime was played on frozen lochs and ponds. Today, throwers and sweepers compete on well-maintained indoor sheets at tournaments, known as bonspiels.

North Dakota boasts 11 curling clubs, more than any other state on a per-capita basis. The first such club was established more than 120 years ago in Drayton.

A handful of prominent curlers hail from North Dakota, including four members of the U.S. Curling Hall of Fame.

Seventeen other states have an official state sport, ranging from dog mushing in Alaska to jousting in Maryland. Minnesota’s state sport is ice hockey, while South Dakota’s is rodeo.

Gov. Doug Burgum signs his name to legislation designating curling as North Dakota's state sport on Thursday, March 23, 2023.

By Jeremy Turley

Jeremy Turley is a Bismarck-based reporter for Forum News Service, which provides news coverage to publications owned by Forum Communications Company.