Mixed doubles curling proves its worth in compelling Olympic debut

That was fun.

The mixed doubles event, which concluded its inaugural Olympic run early Tuesday morning at PyeongChang 2018, acquitted itself of concerns over the newest Olympic sport's merit. The event was far from curling's ugly stepchild; in fact, it may be its heir apparent.

As viewers acclimatize to the slower, more deliberate speed of the men's and women's traditional curling programs now underway, some will surely come to appreciate the palatable blend of brisk pace and a greater focus on the athletes' personalities that mixed doubles curling afforded us.

The benefits of the tweaked rules were made plainly obvious. While the traditional men's and women's curling events feature a 10-end game, with each team playing eight stones per end (that's 80 total stones thrown), mixed doubles boasted a truncated eight-end game, with only six stones per team per end (48 stones thrown).

The other key technical differences - one stone per team is pre-placed on the rink, each team owns a once-per-match power play that can shift the position of the pre-placed stones, and takeouts aren't permitted until the fourth stone overall has been thrown - are all improvements. The changes remove most of the tit-for-tat takeouts that can turn the first half of ends in the four-person event into a predictable holding pattern.

Beyond the differences in rules, the two-person event offers decidedly more human appeal. With fewer athletes on the rink, the interpersonal dynamic between team members is better fleshed out considering that no other sport at the Olympics, winter or summer, offers this degree of mic'd up discussion between its chief participants. In their march to the event's first gold medal, the trust and communication that developed in real time between Canadians John Morris and Kaitlyn Lawes was nearly as compelling as their pinpoint accuracy with the stones.

On the other end of the spectrum, the trials and tribulations of American brother-sister duo Matt and Becca Hamilton were just as interesting. Seeing how the siblings' bond would translate to competition - with no additional teammates to serve as intermediaries - made for must-see television despite the pair's 2-5 record in round-robin play.

To be clear: There is plenty of room in the Olympic program for both the classic four-person team and the newer two-person discipline. Like indoor volleyball and its beach-bound edition, there is enough nuance to make each its own distinct event. The addition of mixed doubles does nothing to denigrate its four-person predecessor, nor does its status as the new kid on the block diminish the honor of capturing a gold medal.

But if there is ever an opportunity for mixed doubles curling to overtake its predecessor in broad popularity, it will be because the former grants its athletes a brighter individual spotlight, and takes the viewer closer to the sport's subjects. The pace of the matches - just the right length to satiate the mainstream sports fan's quadrennial appetite for world-class curling - doesn't hurt either.