The US Winter Olympic team and Norwegian curling men make case for worst dressed

THE Norwegian Olympic Curling Team's Pants has A Facebook page with 542k likes. Some people are easily pleased.

Australia's 2012 uniform received mixe...

THE Norwegian Olympic Curling Team's Pants have their own Facebook page. The page has 542,000 likes, meaning they are conceivably more popular than the sport it is linked to.

Meanwhile, the US Winter Olympic team's Ralph Lauren outfits were released Friday. If you could count Facebook unlikes, they would be stratospheric.

Both unveiled this week, Norway's curling pants and the American team outfit join a long line of Olympic shockers.

There's a bit going on with the US team's Ralph Lauren outfits, unveiled on Friday.

Norwegian curling team members Thomas Ulsrud, Torgor Nergard, Christoffer Svae and Havard Vad Petersson first made a splash at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010, when they trotted out diamond-print pants in the red, white and blue colours of their flag rather than the usual black slacks common to curlers. That led to Facebook fame.

The Norwegians with a bent for outlandish leg wear won a silver medal, too, so figured why not do it again at the 2014 Sochi Games.

Australia's 2012 uniform received mixed reviews.

"Put it like this, you'll not see me wearing them," Norway Coach Pal Trulsen told The Associated Press. "Except maybe at a bad-taste party or something."

The team won a silver medal in Vancouver, but their dacks got most of the glory.

The tradition of the colourful pants began as an accident.

Svae was looking online for gear after a supplier shipped the wrong uniform to the team just weeks before pre-Olympic training. He found golf pants with a red, white and blue chequered pattern and ordered a set in his teammates' sizes.

"We didn't really try to prove a point or anything," Svae said. "It was just feeling comfortable with what we were wearing to represent our country. Obviously, it was a break from tradition."

The nicest thing you could say about Mexico's garish 2012 garb was it lacked cohesion.

At first, Svae's teammates did not go for it.

"I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had seen," Torger Nergaard said. But he did not think fans would care one way or the other. "As long as we were wearing pants, I didn't think there would be too much of a fuss."

Now, each player's closet is a rainbow of 80 to 90 pairs of loud pants. They travel to each competition with about six options, usually coordinated by Svae. "My wife hates it," Ulsrud said.

Norway's silver medallists celebrate after the medals ceremony in Vancouver.

There are rules to go with the pants. One is that they all wear the same pants together as a team, never alone.

"These pants would be great to win in," Vad Petersson said. "But they'd be terrible to lose in. We decided that when we wear them, we have to really try and win and go the whole way."

So fashion crime or fashion triumph? The world is divided on Norway. On the US, not so much.

2014 #TeamUSA Uniforms For #Sochi2014! A clear cry for help! #UglyChristmasSweater pic.twitter.com/5JYXv57wzo

— sean mackey (@1DancingCrane) January 24, 2014