Winter Olympics: There’s hockey ice, then there’s curling ice, then ...

A ice resurfacing machine works on the ice during the women’s speedskating 500-meter event at the Adler Arena during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.  (Damien Meyer / AFP/Getty Images)

Volunteers take to the ice to repair the surface during a break in the pairs free skate figure skating competition at the Iceberg Skating Palace on Wednesday during the 2014 Winter Olympics.  (Vadim Ghirda / Associated Press)

Yulia Lipnitskaia of Russia competes in the women’s team free skate figure skating competition at the Iceberg Skating Palace. She was pleased with the surface, saying, “It’s easy to skate, easy to push off.”   (Bernat Armangue / Associated Press)

Eve Muirhead, skip for Britain’s women’s curling team, plays in against Canada on Wednesday at the Ice Cube Curling Center. Technicians use only purified water -- no calcium, no magnesium -- for the curling surface.  (Clive Mason / Getty Images)

Germany’s Peter Rickmers sweeps the ice in competition against China in men’s curling on Wednesday. Curling requires a special textured surface called “pebble.”   (Wong Maye-E / Associated Press)

A Chinese skater touches the ice as an Italian skater is reflected during a women’s 3,000-meter relay short track speedskating semifinal Monday at the Iceberg Skating Palace during the 2014 Winter Olympics. To convert it back to ice suitable for figure skating, technicians add a layer of warm water as part of the process to raise the temperature from 20 to 25 degrees.  (Darron Cummings / Associated Press)

Sweden and the Czech Republic face off in the third period of a men’s ice hockey game Wednesday at the 2014 Winter Olympics. Hockey requires a smooth surface to keep the puck from skipping.   (Mark Humphrey / Associated Press)