The Winter Olympics may be over, but there’s still plenty to talk about in regards to the Pyeongchang Games. Surprisingly, one of those things is curling, which has been slowly creeping up the sports popularity ladder in recent years and recently saw several dramatic matches, with the Swedish women taking home the gold and their male counterparts falling to the Americans in their own gold medal match.
Actress Alicia Vikander, who hails from Sweden, was game to take on the topic during a recent chat with USA Today, revealing that she finds the sport “sexy.”
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“I love that curling is becoming a sexy sport,” the 29-year-old shared. “It’s very addictive to watch.”
The Oscar winner noted that while she, like many others, had to learn the rules of the sport, she soon found herself tuning in over the years.
“When we were doing well, I was like, ‘I need to learn about curling,’” she said. “I didn’t know anything about it. And then I was totally watching the finals. One year I had to set my alarm to watch the finals at 2 a.m.”
Despite her enthusiasm for the sport, her own efforts while curling with friends weren’t as successful.
“I was like Bambi on the ice, I fell over a lot,” she recalled. “And I always ended up smashing (the curling rock) against the wall. It’s so delicate, the amount of force required.”
While Vikander may not be an Olympian herself, she definitely trained like one for her upcoming role as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider, which opens in March.
The actress gained 12 pounds of muscle — including an eight-pack — for the film, studying martial arts and working with health and wellness trainer Magnus Lygdback to transform herself into the famed explorer. While Vikander had previously studied as a trained ballet dancer, the seven months of Tomb Raider training were likely a different experience for the star.
“We got some pretty freakish results,” Lygdback told The Hollywood Reporter of his work with Vikander. “It’s a modern Lara Croft, a strong, independent woman, and I think it’s exactly what the world needs right now.”
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