A stone's throw away

Posted at: 02/18/2010 12:23 PM | Updated at: 02/18/2010 7:52 PM
By: Robin De Wind | WHEC.com

Curling is one of the featured sports at the Olympics today. A local woman spent the last four years preparing for her Olympic dream but missed going to Vancouver by one point.

Caitlin Maroldo has been curling since she was a child. “My grandmother started when she moved to Utica and she joined for social reasons and she brought the grand kids and me and my cousin sort of took to it.”

She competed in junior nationals at 16 and continued to be competitive, practicing at the Rochester Curling Club.

The basic goal of the game is to get your rocks to the house -- or the bullseye. The closer to the center is how you score points but the strategy and skill are what make this sport fascinating.

Maroldo said, “It's as nerve racking as any sport. The last shot of the game you have to throw it, you have to sweep it well, it's the same as any sport.”

Caitlin enjoyed it and was so good at she joined a foursome of women from around the country and decided to go for gold. “Training every, it’s mental. It’s what you think about for a long time before you play.”

Caitlin did all this while being a young mother. Cara seems to understand and appreciate her mom's dreams. “She sees curling, she watches it on TV so she knows about it. She likes it when Nana comes and I go curling so that's good.”

Caitlin competed in the Olympic trials in Denver and it came down to one shot. “The final was a great game but still hard to talk about. We lost by one point.”

Caitlin’s team lost to the U.S. team competing this week in Vancouver. She was a stone’s throw away from realizing her Olympic dream for 2010. “It’s okay now. It took time. You just think of how close you were and refocus. I took a short season this year. We'll see where it takes us. It's a long time away.”

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