World Curling Addresses Cheating Allegations Following Profanity-Laden Olympic Clash Between Canada and Sweden

Tensions boiled over on Olympic ice Friday night during a round-robin curling match between Canada and Sweden, resulting in a heated exchange where Canadian curler Marc Kennedy told his opponent to “f*** off” amidst accusations of cheating.Following the altercation, World Curling has concluded that “no violations were recorded” during the official observations of the game.The controversy began when Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson accused Mr. Kennedy of “double-touching” the stone, an infraction where a player touches the handle or stone after releasing it or crossing the “hog line.”The two opponents exchanged words on the ice, with Mr. Eriksson saying ironically, “Maybe it’s okay touching the rock after the hog line, I don’t know.”Mr. Kennedy fired back immediately, saying, “Who’s doing it? I haven’t done it once, you can f*** off.” As the argument continued, Kennedy reiterated his frustration, adding, “Come on Oskar, just f*** off.”World Curling released a statement on Saturday addressing both the cheating allegations and the sportsmanship displayed during the match.“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,” the statement read. The governing body noted that video replay is not used during games to review calls.Despite being cleared of the delivery violation during the observation period, Canada was issued a verbal warning regarding Mr. Kennedy’s language.“During that meeting it was made clear to those officials that further inappropriate behavior, determined by rule R.19 would result in additional sanctions,” World Curling said. Under this rule, Mr. Kennedy could face suspension for further violations.In response to the incident, World Curling announced that two officials will now be positioned to observe all deliveries beginning with Saturday’s games.Mr. Kennedy, 44, insisted on Saturday that he is not a cheat, though he acknowledged he “probably could have handled it better” regarding his reaction. He said he has never taken to the ice “with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating.”When asked about online footage that appeared to show him touching the stone with an extended finger, Mr. Kennedy said: “Yes, I’m not even going there. I’ve never even known that to be a concern before. It’s never ever come up in conversation.”He went on to suggest that the incident might have been a “premeditated” attack by the Swedish team. “They’ve come up with a plan to catch teams in the act,” Mr. Kennedy said.Mr. Eriksson stood by his accusations, claiming he had seen the infraction in the past. “We want to play a fair-and-square game, like you follow the rules,” he said. “And if we see something that’s not following the rules, we tell the opponents or the official. This time we did both.”The scrutiny of the Canadian team continued into the weekend. During a subsequent game against Switzerland, the Swiss men’s team also alerted umpires to suspicions that a Canadian member was double-tapping.

World Curling Addresses Cheating Allegations Following Profanity-Laden Olympic Clash Between Canada and Sweden

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