How many people watch Olympic curling and think ‘I could do that’? We find out.

Perhaps no other sport in the world’s quadrennial gauntlet of elite athleticism inspires nations of couch commentators in varying degrees of schlubbiness to confidently proclaim: I could do that.

Why, yes, it’s curling, that oddball Olympic game that looks like — and is — people using brooms to sweep a path for a giant puck-shaped granite stone.

The Potomac Curling Club hosts events at the National Capital Curling Center in Laurel to harness demand from new Olympic dreamers. Every four years, the club increases its open houses and introductory lessons. The club also serves people who simply want to have a good time participating in a friendly competition that often ends in refreshments.

“I feel like, if I want to make my Olympic athlete run, this is the sport I could do it,” said Sean White, 53, who was there on the eve of the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics. “There’s a 54-year-old curler for the United States right now. I have hope.”

“You have a chance,” chimed in White’s wife, Catherine Carbullido White, 48. (She was joking.)

The Brooklyn Park couple were among 300 or so people at the center that afternoon, many of them inspired by the games to slide along the sheet of ice.

They slipped and stumbled and propelled 42-pound stones — not very accurately — down 150 feet of ice.

“Today did crush my dreams,” Sean White said with a chuckle after leaving the ice. “It’s much more difficult than it looks.

“I’m more built for the bar shuffleboard.”

The Potomac Curling Club, a volunteer organization dating to 1961, has called the Laurel center home since 2002. More than 400 members use the four sheets of ice in Laurel to play curling.

This year’s games put curling in the spotlight with an American mixed-doubles pair winning a silver medal — the first time the U.S. has medaled in that competition. Olympic curling, usually a peaceable sport, also went viral over a heated exchange over cheating accusations between the Swedish and Canadian men’s teams.

Past Olympics served as the gateway for many of the Potomac Curling Club’s members, including its board vice president, Olivia Cappello. Ever since curling became an Olympic sport in 1998, she has fixated on it. After the 2022 games, she attended one of the club’s introductory events.

Cappello, 34, dedicates at least two nights a week to make the trip from her Washington home to play and more time to pitch in during open houses to get others hooked — regardless of their aspirations.

“I think people come with extreme humility,” Cappello said. “If you start, you will have friends who are like, ‘Oh, are you going to the Olympics?’ I think that perception has shifted a little bit over the last couple of Olympics cycles, where people realize how athletic this sport is.”

Although the Potomac club has members who travel the country to compete with other clubs, many are there to stay active and social.

It’s a weird sport to watch, or play. Typically, a curler squats over a foothold, called a hack, and lightly grips the handle of the stone.

The player launches from this position and slides the stone toward the house, which is the big target at the other end of the ice. The goal is to aim for a position — usually the closer to center, the better — identified by a teammate, who then uses a broom to sweep the ice in a way that reduces friction, enabling the stone to travel a straighter, faster line.

Some members use a stick to guide stones down the ice rather than bending down, and others can participate in wheelchair curling. Games and open curling sessions end with snacks and beverages in the warm room that looks out onto the ice.

Fresh off the predictable Olympic bump, the Potomac Curling Club will host six weekend “Learn to Curl” sessions through April 12. Those events include three hours of instruction and a game. But all slots have waitlists.

Cynthia Barbe and Jonathan Favorite made the trip to Laurel from Hampstead on Saturday. Barbe, 52, signed them up for the open house and more training as a Christmas gift to Favorite, 58.

After the 2022 Olympics, Favorite couldn’t shake the urge to try curling. He played a lot of high school sports and considered himself athletic.

“I thought this is something I could do at 58,” he said, “as long as I don’t bust my butt on the ice.”