Debbie McCormick and her brother grew up pushing each other across the ice on curling stones long before they learned the stones' significance in the game their father played at the Madison Curling Club.

Now, not only does McCormick know exactly what to do with those stones, she leads a team of women that actually has a chance at earning the first U.S. women's medal in a sport that is still relatively unknown in many parts of the country.

Born in Canada, McCormick moved to Madison, Wis., as a young child. Her father, Wally Henry, is a world champion curler and took his children with him when he went to the Madison Curling Club each winter.

Not only did Henry McCormick introduce Debbie McCormick to the game, he is also the team's coach. He and his daughter have been able to separate their coach-player relationship from their father-daughter relationship when they step on the ice.

"When we're on the ice," Henry McCormick said. "The relationship is that of a curler and a coach. We're totally different off the ice. We seem to get along and be able to concentrate on the task at hand."

For Debbie McCormick, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games will be her third representing the United States at the Olympics. This will be, however, her first trip as skip, or captain, and for most of her teammates, it will be their first trip to the Games.

"Every experience is different," said Debbie McCormick. "I've played different positions and I've been the skip since 2003. The real advantage we have is that we've been together for so long — about five years."

Debbie McCormick said she loves the challenge and strategy involved in calling the shots, but to earn the medal she knows she will need the help of her teammates — Nicole Joraanstad, Natalie Nicholson, Allison Pottinger and Tracy Stachtjen.

"We've had a ton of accomplishments," she said. "We've worked really hard together and we've trained really hard. I'm really confident going into the Olympics about where we stand."

The team won the right to represent the U.S. in women's curling nearly nine months ago. Since then, the team has been training, both on their own and as a unit. The U.S. curlers also traveled to tournaments in Europe and Canada with great success.

Most recently, the team won the Ottawa Valley Curling Association Fall Classic in Kemptville, Ontario, without a single loss. Before that, it finished second at the Grasshopper Women's Masters in Zurich, Switzerland, losing a heartbreaker 7-6 to the German Olympic team.

Most of the team's tournaments have been in Canada, a hotbed for the sport. For example, more than a million people in Canada curl, while the U.S. can boast only about 60,000 curlers.