VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Like an NFL quarterback preparing for a playoff game on the road, Denmark's Madeleine Dupont has been working on hand signals to help communicate with her teammates.

Dupont's sport of choice is curling. But the crowd is so loud you could easily mistake these matches for football games.

They're chanting and doing the wave inside the curling venue at the Vancouver Olympics, and the players are having to adjust. Although the sport is one of Canada's favorite pastimes, the raucous crowds packing the cozy arena are raising eyebrows. Like golf, curling has an understated tradition and an etiquette that might be unfamiliar to some fans.

Dupont says at one point recently, she was about to shoot but decided to try to wait until things quieted down.

"The problem is probably that not everyone who's here is used to watching curling," Dupont said. "They just kept on going, and I stood up to be like, 'Can we please just ... ?"'

There's plenty of curling on television during these Olympics, with MSNBC, CNBC and USA airing it Monday. In prime time that night, NBC will show ice dancing, another event where there's a time to cheer and a time to be quiet.

NBC also plans to show aerials skiing and ski jumping in prime time.

The curling crowd Sunday morning wasn't too rowdy — fans have been asked not to yell when players are shooting.