A 61 year old from Glasgow named Mark Callan has become an unlikely viral sensation at the Winter Olympics after social media captured him moonwalking down the curling rink while doing his job as chief ice technician. Callan wears a gravity fed backpack containing 15 liters of water and shuffles backwards down the sheet inside the Cortina Curling Stadium, spraying plumes of water into the air to create what is called pebbling the ice, which involves sprinkling water droplets that freeze almost immediately and can only be removed by players furiously sweeping with their brushes. His movements have been set to music across various social media platforms, parodies have appeared, and one Norwegian broadcaster amid peals of laughter described him as scooting down the sheet, earning him the nickname the Michael Jackson of curling.
Callan, who now lives in Copenhagen with his partner and two year old child, says his friends and family have been enjoying the clips and asking what on earth he is up to, but he is taking it all in stride. The sharp steps that have captivated the internet are actually necessary to keep him balanced on the slippery surface and ensure the spread of water is as even as possible, proving that sometimes the most practical solutions look the most ridiculous. Callan’s journey to Olympic viral fame began at an ice rink in Aberfoyle, Scotland where he first tried curling after seeing it on television, and his main memory from those early days is falling over a lot before curiosity got the better of him when he noticed someone pebbling the ice. The World Curling employee says that if his backwards shuffle puts a smile on people’s faces in a world full of doom and gloom, then he is completely fine with being the unexpected star of the Winter Olympics while just trying to do his job.
