Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy — The often-surprising world of curling has heated up at the Winter Olympics as allegations of cheating and audible expletives overshadowed a tremendous match between the two best men’s teams.
Canada’s Mark Kennedy was upset when Swedish opponent Oscar Eriksson accused him of “double-touching” — essentially, touching the rock again after initially leaving it under a sheet of snow — during Canada’s 8-6 victory in round-robin play on Friday.
Kennedy repeatedly used profanity to refuse to break any rules. The match was briefly stopped due to the booing and Kennedy argued with Swedish team members across the ice.
“After 25 years on tour and four Olympic Games, I don’t like being accused of cheating,” Kennedy, 44, said.
“So,” he continued, “I told them where to put it. Because we’re the wrong team to do that.”
Ericsson said he just wants everyone to “play by the same rules.”
He said, “We want a game that is as sportsmanlike, honest and clean as possible, so as soon as I see the Canadian No. 2, in my eyes, getting stoned, we call it.”
The rules state that the stone must be delivered using a handle sitting on the top of the rock and that it must be released by hand before it reaches the hog line. In the Olympics, there is a thick green line at each end.
Replays showed Kennedy released the stone using the handle and touched it again with his finger outstretched as he approached the hog line.
At the early end of the match, Sweden informed the officials of their complaints. An official then remained on the hog line to monitor the Canadian curlers, and no action was taken. Curling does not use video replays.
World Curling took no action against either team.
