--- title: Olympic Curler Matt Hamilton Has Inspired a Mustache Militia description: American Olympic curler Matt Hamilton is inspiring fans to follow his lead — by growing impressive mustaches of their own. canonical: https://time.com/5170638/matt-hamilton-mustache/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-22T16:54:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-01-15T18:32:23.000Z og:title: Olympic Curler Matt Hamilton Inspires Viral Mustache Trend og:description: It's called the mustache militia and it's all over social media og:url: https://time.com/5170638/matt-hamilton-mustache/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3583ef7f1045089/69892893ab6d77219a6b1dfd/matt-hamilton-curling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 6457 og:image:height: 3632 og:image:alt: Team USA Media Summit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Olympic Curler Matt Hamilton Inspires Viral Mustache Trend twitter:description: It's called the mustache militia and it's all over social media twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb3583ef7f1045089/69892893ab6d77219a6b1dfd/matt-hamilton-curling.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Olympic Curler Matt Hamilton Asked People to Shave Their Beards Into Mustaches to Support Team USA. They're Doing It. > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: September 2026. ## TIME Newsletters: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME publishes seven free email newsletters, written and edited by TIME journalists, reaching more than 1.1 million engaged readers. TIME has reported on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world since 1923, and its newsletters bring that same authority directly to the inbox. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=30fec163-3516-4b54-924a-d5bf5f756860&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How To Watch Curling [Watch (HLS stream): How To Watch Curling](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/YNppxNLX.m3u8) (3:24)  _Published 2018-01-30. What you need to know about the sport of curling, featuring TIME's Sean Gregory and former National Curling Champion Martin Sather._  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:32 PM UTCPublished: Feb 22, 2018 4:54 PM UTC What you need to know about the sport of curling, featuring TIME's Sean Gregory and former National Curling Champion Martin Sather.  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Updated: Jan 15, 2026 6:32 PM UTCPublished: Feb 22, 2018 4:54 PM UTC Olympic athletes are inspiring. They train for years in [sometimes-obscure](http://time.com/5162235/mr-t-curling-winter-olympics/) sports. They wear their [bodies out](http://time.com/5167790/lindsey-vonn-bronze-medal-reaction/). They face extreme odds to make it to the Games. And, when fortune is in their favor, [they win](http://time.com/5170528/usa-beats-canada-hockey-curling-olympics-2018-reactions/), giving us impressive stories of overcoming obstacles and pursuing excellence as we’ve seen many times at the PyeongChang [2018 Winter Olympics.](http://time.com/5129060/closing-ceremony-2018-winter-olympics-watch/) Or, if you’re Olympic curler Matt Hamilton, you’re inspiring your newly-found fans with your distinctive facial hair. A contingency of Hamilton followers have flocked to the “Hamilton Mustache Militia,” sharing pictures online of themselves wearing the American curler’s signature full ‘stache after hearing a call-to-action on Twitter. The hashtag — and facial hair challenge — was kicked off a few days ago by 2010 Olympian Chris Plys, who asked the internet to come together to support the four-man Team Shuster curling crew in their match against Great Britain. Hamilton then egged fans on to continue with their shows of support in advance of the semifinal matchup against Canada, which they won. The U.S. curling team is now headed into a gold-medal round with Sweden, [taking place](http://results.nbcolympics.com/results?sport%5Fid=212&date=-1) at 1:35 a.m. EST on Feb. 24\. And in the meantime, curling fans have plenty of shaving to do and selfies to share. > [](https://twitter.com/MattJamilton/status/966480352150675456) > [](https://twitter.com/joeziz59/status/966661649447964672) > [](https://twitter.com/bluesun%5Ftwigg/status/966646159870586881) > [](https://twitter.com/chrisplys/status/966140260282437633) > [](https://twitter.com/acrnobrnja/status/966500911387430912) > [](https://twitter.com/MattsonTina/status/966687771652849664) > [](https://twitter.com/jennie%5Fski/status/966642667856846848) > [](https://twitter.com/corbydickerson/status/966582760319090689) > [](https://twitter.com/JKacz84/status/966578661846634501) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] We're here at the [ UNKNOWN ] curling club with Martin Sather, 2012 National Curling Champion. And going in to the 2018 Olympics, Martin is gonna tell us what we need to know about curling. So the main idea is to get your rocks closer than the other team's rocks to the middle. And for every one you can get closer you score one point. It's a little akin to baseball, right? Innings and line ups and-- Yeah. So an end in Curling is like an inning in baseball. Once all 16 rocks are thrown down to The one end of the ice, that's called an end. There's ten ends, and then who ever has the highest score after those ten ends wins the game. Describe the concept of the hammer. Like what that is, and why it's so important. So the hammer is when the team is throwing the last rock of. So if let's say the Yellow Team throws the last rock of that end, they have the hammer. And that's a big advantage, because they get the last shot. So you know, the other team has to make sure they don't leave it set up nicely for that other team's last shot to maybe score on multiple points. There's four positions on the team. They're called the lead, who throws the first two rocks. The second throws the second two rocks. The third of the vice skip throws the third two and then your skip throws the last two rocks. And then the skip is also kinda the team captain. They call the strategy and they don't do much of the sweeping, that's left up to the other three players. When you're throwing a curling shot the first thing you do is you're going to get into what's called the hack, which is these two blocks right here. Depending on if you're right or left- handed. You're getting into the right hack, or the left hack. For me, I'm right- handed, so I'm gonna get into this one, here, with my gripper foot. My other foot, my left, is going to have a slippery surface, called a slider, underneath it. And that's so I can slide on the ice, and then, you get down on the hack. The first thing you always do is, you clean the bottom of your rock, because there's always some kind of ice or debris underneath. And you make sure that's clean. Line yourself up with your target. You lean forward a little bit and bring it back and then, you slide out. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] You have to release the stone by this line, called the Hog Line and if you don't, Then the stone gets removed from play. Why is there sweeping? What does this, you know, what does the sweeping do? It's called curling, so the rock is going on a left to right or right to left trajectory, depending on how you throw it. And the sweeping can straighten that path out a little bit, and it can also keep the rock from slowing down. So you can actually carry the stone further. The skip is gonna yell out directions to the sweepers. So things that the skip is gonna say, either they're gonna say yes, no, sometimes hurry or hard. So in a situation like this where you have axe in the house, two reds and two yellows, you'd have one yellow that's close to all of them and that would score one point because it's out counting the red. And the red is out counting the other yellow here. So it would be one point for yellow. So if I was to skip for red and it was my shot, I'd want to make the double takeout on the yellows and hit this one here into this back one. Take them both out, roll right here, and score three points. [ MUSIC ] If I was a skip for the yellow team and it was my shot, I'd either wanna throw what's called a guard and block this off in the front of the rings or I'd wanna make a takeout on the red. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5170638/matt-hamilton-mustache/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5170638/matt-hamilton-mustache/"},"headline":"Olympic Curler Matt Hamilton Asked People to Shave Their Beards Into Mustaches to Support Team USA. 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