They make your women cry. They make your men quake. Like Goths storming the walls of curling propriety, Canadian fans are redefining home-rink advantage at the Vancouver games.

Traditionally, curling competitors enjoy the same respectful quiet that golfers expect.

Not from this crowd. They’ve been a little bit baseball – wise cracking and shot jinxing – and a little bit soccer – organized chanting and the odd singalong.

That includes breaking the sport’s ultimate taboo – celebrating mistakes.

“I don’t like when they cheer a missed shot,” Glen Isaacson, father of American team member Chris, told Time magazine. “It violates curling etiquette. That’s the part that makes it tough to watch.”

Danish skip and pin-up girl Madeleine Dupont shed bitter tears after noisy spectators shattered her calm in a match against Canada’s women.

“I could not control the weight on the last shot in the 10th (end),” Dupont told reporters. “It should have been way slower, but when there are 6,000 people yelling, it’s pretty hard to find out how hard you kick off. It’s just so hard to focus. You’re trying, but it’s just not the same as if it was silent.”

Another Canadian victim, Germany, were likewise put out. Skip Andrea Schoepp called all the hooting and cowbell clanging “unfair.”

In the final end of the Canadian men’s team’s match against Britain, Canada trailed 6-5. Fans interceded again – spontaneously bursting into O Canada. Unable to hear each other, both teams were forced to stand and watch for several minutes.

Once the singalong ended, Kevin Martin and company rallied to win 7-6.

“I thought it was hilarious,” British skip and good sport David Murdoch said afterward. “It’s not something that you’re ever going to see stopping a match again, is it?”

The rambunctious support has taken even the Canadians by surprise, prompting mixed feelings.

“The timing was not great, but it was amazing,” Canadian second Marc Kennedy said of the impromptu anthem. “I’m not sure if that’s ever happened in curling – it was unbelievable. It’s like a fifth man out there.”

“I’m guessing 75 per cent (of the fans) in there don’t know the game that well and they’re just there to cheer,” Canadian skip Cheryl Bernard said after the game against Dupont’s Denmark. “You have to give them something for that, but I think we need to have it a little bit quieter for the opposition because it’s uncomfortable for them.”

Fat chance.

As the tournament heads into the medal round with the Canadian teams sporting a combined 17-1 record and looking like clear favourites for gold, the decibel level is likely to increase.

The sudden spike in borderline hooliganism – beer sales at the curling rink are second only to the hockey venue – has yet to prompt global outrage. Maybe that’s because the rest of the globe doesn’t really have a dog in this hunt. The vast majority of curling supporters are Canadians. And who are they going to complain to?

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Whatever the origin of this etiquette-busting, it does seem to be contagious.

As Sweden’s Niklas Edin settled into the blocks for a key slide last weekend, one wisenheimer screamed out, “No pressure!” Edin made the shot anyway. Afterward, he brushed off the interruption.

The winning team in that game? The U.S.A. Guess that’s another thing they’ll blame us for.