THE CANADIAN men’s curling team has again been accused of cheating in what has been a chaotic start to their Winter Olympic campaign.
Their match with Sweden on Friday descended into a heated and expletive-filled exchange after Swede Oskar Eriksson accused the Canadians of double-touching.
The Canadian men’s curling team has once again been accused of cheatingCredit: AP
The team have now been accused of double-touching by SwitzerlandCredit: AP
Double-touching involves making contact with the handle after releasing it, while beyond the boundary for when you must release, called the hog line.
Players are free to touch and retouch the handle of a curling stone as many times as they wish before reaching the hog line, but touching beyond that point is an infraction.
However, that is not the case with touching the granite of the stone itself, which is off limits at any time once the stone is in forward motion.
Canadian third Marc Kennedy was accused of doing exactly this by Eriksson, .
He fired back: “I haven’t done it once, you can f*** off. I don’t give a s***.”
Canada eventually won the match 8-6 and were not adjudged to have cheated.
They faced no punishment following the initial controversy, barring a verbal warning for Kennedy in regard to his use of foul language.
But just 24 hours later the team found themselves again involved in more accusations of cheating, this time in their match against Switzerland on Saturday.
Double-touching involves touching the stone after the hog line, or touching the granite during deliveryCredit: Getty
Canada’s Marc Kennedy has been at the centre of the controversyCredit: PA
During their round-robin clash, Swiss curler Pablo Lachat-Couchepin was heard telling a coach that he saw the Canadians double-touch, and that he was not the only one who caught it.
Per the Toronto Star , he said: “I don’t want to focus too much on it, but he double-touched, and the referee saw it.”
It is not known if Lachat-Couchepin took his concerns to the officials during the match.
But any infractions didn’t help Kennedy and co to secure a win on the day, as the near-perfect Swiss won 9-5 to give Canada their first loss of the tournament.
The controversy surrounding double-touching by dedicating two officials to moving between the four curling sheets to monitor deliveries throughout the matches.
What are the double-touch curling rules?
World Curling issued a clarification on the rule of double-touching on Saturday amid the growing controversy.
The statement read: “Game Umpires are situated at the end of each sheet and physically cannot see every delivery infraction. However, when they are made aware of delivery issues, game umpires are positioned to observe the delivery for three ends. During this period of observation in the Friday evening game, there were no violations recorded.
“When delivering a stone, before the hog line players can retouch the handle as many times as they wish. However, touching the handle after the hog line is not allowed and will result in the stone being removed from play as per Rule R.5 (e) that states: “A stone must be clearly released from the hand before it reaches the hog line at the delivery end. If the player fails to do so, the stone is immediately removed from play by the delivering team.”
“During forward motion, touching the granite of the stone is not allowed. This will result in the stone being removed from play.
“As per rule R.5 (d): ‘The curling stone must be delivered using the handle of the stone.‘ Violation of this rule, will result in the stone being removed from play.
“It is not possible for World Curling to have game umpires positioned to observe all hog lines for every stone delivery. However, beginning with the Saturday (14 February) afternoon session, two officials will move between all four sheets and observe deliveries.”
Canada also released a statement addressing their controversy against Sweden in which they stood by their curlers.
They wrote: “During the game, officials were called to the field of play and closely monitored for any release rule infractions, including those involving touching the granite following a complaint by Team Sweden.
“After three ends of careful observation, no hog line violations or stone retouches were found by the officials.
“The Canadian men’s team also received a verbal warning for language used during the game which we are aware of and supportive. We want to reaffirm that Curling Canada fully supports fair play, respect and sportsmanship, values that are fundamental to our sport.”
Kennedy went one step further, apologising for the nature of his comments, if not the sentiment of them.
He said after the incident: “You can’t take it back. You learn from it and move on and try to get the focus back on the curling.
“But I’ll be honest with you guys: my whole life, when my integrity has been questioned, sometimes that’s the response I have.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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