SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. - The Norwegian women unveiled an even more colourful version of the Loudmouth pants on Sunday, but Canada wasn't fazed en route to an 8-3 victory at the women's world curling championship.
Winnipeg's Jennifer Jones was alone in first place at 3-0 after her win over Linn Githmark's rink.
Norway's Olympic silver-medal winning men's team popularized the pants featuring red, white and blue diamonds at the Vancouver Games last month. Thomas Ulsrud's team lost to Canada's Kevin Martin in the final.
Norway's women didn't qualify for the Olympics, but Githmark's team sported a pants pattern Sunday that was even more flamboyant - a kaleidoscope of multi-coloured dots.
"It kind of makes a statement," Jones said. "I don't think I could pull them off, but they look great on those young girls.
"They made a statement at the Olympics and the girls are carrying them on, so it's fun. It 'youngs' us down a little bit and gets people talking about our great game."
The pants may be a conversation piece, but they didn't bring Norway any luck on Sunday.
Githmark gave up single-point steals to Jones in the first two ends, blanked the third and allowed another steal of two in the fourth to fall behind 4-0. Instead of drawing for two in the fifth, she attempted to raise her own shot stone onto Canada's to score a multiple end, but missed and took just a single point.
Canada then scored three in the eighth to finish off the Norwegians.
"We like to play curling for fun. That's what we did today. We just missed every shot by an inch, but that's curling," Githmark said. "When we play with red shirts, we're going to play with these pants."
Germany's Andrea Schopp lost her first game to fall to 2-1 alongside the United States, Russia, Scotland, Sweden, and Denmark.
Norway, Japan and Latvia were 1-2, while Switzerland and defending champion China were winless in three games.
Pants aside, the most dramatic victory for Canada on Sunday was a 6-4 win over Switzerland's Binia Feltscher in the afternoon draw.
A shocking fall by Swiss second Heike Schwaller in the fourth end and a raise triple-takeout by Jones to get out of major trouble in the eighth were the turning points.
Schwaller tumbled head first onto the ice while sweeping Feltscher's first throw of the fourth end, with her jaw and shoulder taking the brunt of the fall.
The Swiss second was in obvious pain, but continued to play. She applied an ice pack to her chin, shoulder and left knee between thrown stones and during the break.
Schwaller didn't speak to reporters, but went immediately to physiotherapy so she could play against Sweden at night. She was reluctant to discuss her health later and would only say later, "I'm OK."
"It looked like she hurt herself," Jones said. "She's got a couple of bruises and I'm sure she'll be a little bit black and blue. She bounced back and played well. That's what happens when we play on ice. It's slippery."
Feltscher's stone was removed from play when Schwaller made contact with it. Canada was already lying two counters at the time and wound up scoring three for a 3-1 lead.
Jones got out of a major jam in the eighth when the Swiss were looking at their first multi-point end to either tie the game or take a lead. After missing a takeout with her first shot, Jones made a raise triple takeout to leave Canada's counter on the back four as shot stone for the single point.
"It was a huge momentum change in that game," Jones said. "We knew when we made that one we had control."
Falls are common in curling and because the sweepers apply so much pressure to their brooms, spills can be painful when they do go down.
"I have seen some blood come one time. No blood today, which is always good," Jones said. "I gave myself a black eye a long time ago. 1994."
Wang's Chinese team continued to struggle with their post-Olympic fatigue after winning the bronze medal in Vancouver. China fell 14-4 to Scotland on Sunday night.
Wang was so frustrated with her shot-calling that she didn't want to play Sunday night, but in the end she felt it was better that she did.
"I came here, so I should be playing," she said. "Tonight, I felt better than the last two games, but we still lost the game. We need to work hard."
On Monday, Canada plays Latvia in the afternoon draw and China in the evening.