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Canada’s men’s curling team have escaped punishment in the Winter Olympics despite appearing to have broken the rules in a bad-tempered victory over Sweden. However, World Curling has warned the Canadians about their abusive language during their 8-6 win on Friday, and introduced emergency spot checks.
The game was halted after Sweden claimed their rivals were touching the stone following release – which is not allowed under the rules – and asked officials to keep an eye out for further incidents. With Canada 7-6 ahead after the penultimate end, Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson then told Marc Kennedy he was double-touching the stone, which led to the Canadian responding with an expletive.
Asked about the exchange afterwards, Kennedy said: “It’s sport. It’s the Olympics. Both teams are trying to win. Oskar was accusing us of cheating. I didn’t like it. I’ve been curling professionally for 25 years.”
The Curling Canada chief, Nolan Thiessen, said it was a poor choice of words from Kennedy. “I think heat of the moment, I would allow for as well,” Thiessen said. “Something was said in his ear which got him going. Head games get played in a lot of sports and things get said in competitive sport and I think this was one of those situations. Do I wish Mark didn’t drop an F-bomb? Yeah.”
World Curling has introduced electronic handles on the stones at these Games, which flash red if players are still making contact with the stone beyond the hog line, the point where curlers must let go of the stone during delivery. However, the Swedes believed that Kennedy was touching the stone and not the handle containing the sensor, meaning the red lights did not flash.
Replays appeared to back Eriksson up, but the officials did not intervene. “We told the officials,” said Eriksson. “They came out and they misread the rules, sadly. Because they thought double-touching any part of the rock is OK. And then they found out that was wrong. You can only touch the electronic part of the handle.”
On Saturday, World Curling released a statement confirming that the result of the game was final. “World Curling does not currently use video replay to re-umpire game decisions. Decisions made during a game are final,” it said.
However, the world body would be introducing spot checks to ensure the rules are followed in the future. “It is not possible for World Curling to have game umpires positioned to observe all hog lines for every stone delivery,” it said. “However, beginning with the Saturday afternoon session, two officials will move between all four sheets and observe deliveries.”
It also sent an email to every team at the Winter Olympics, reminding them that not using the handle was illegal. “A stone must be delivered using the handle of the stone,” it said. “Touching the granite at any time during the forward motion is not allowed and considered a touched moving stone which results in the stone being removed from play.”
Meanwhile, Canada were also warned that any repeat of the bad language would result in sanctions.
