The statue, by Swiss artist Björn Zryd, means curling is the first Winter Olympic sport to have a sculpture placed at the venue.

"It is a huge honour to have had President Bach unveil our curling sculpture," Caithness said.

"This sculpture further re-enforces the link between curling, the Olympic Movement and the City of Lausanne.

"Björn has done a wonderful job of capturing the emotion and spirit of curling in his work which has been placed in a prime position in the Olympic Museum grounds for all to see."

Patrick Hürlimann, Björn Zryd, Kate Caithness, Thomas Bach, Jean-Paul Bidaud and Norwegian Olympic curling gold medallist Bent Ånund Ramsfjell with the new curling statue at the Olympic Museum ©WCF


The "Pure Emotion" statue, which is made of Italian Carrara marble, depicts a curler in delivery and took more than 250 hours to create.

It is two metres long and 80 centimetres high, and came about after former WCF vice-president and Nagano 1998 Olympic curling champion Patrick Hürlimann and fellow Swiss WCF Hall of Fame member Jean-Paul Bidaud introduced Zryd to the sport's world governing body to work on the project.

The curling statue can be viewed in the Olympic Park surrounding the recently re-designed Olympic Museum at 1 quai d'Ouchy, Lausanne, Switzerland.

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