The Canadian curler at the center of a spiraling controversy at the Winter Olympics insisted Saturday he was not a cheat and postulated that his team might be the target of a “premeditated” attack by Sweden, one of its biggest rivals for the gold medal.
On Friday, television microphones picked up both teams grumbling to officials about the opposing team’s releases. Sweden, in particular, seemed to think Canada’s Marc Kennedy was touching the rock after his release.
While putting the rocks away after the ninth end, Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson went at Kennedy, accusing him of double-touching the rock as he released, saying his hand was still touching the rock after the hog line. The two swore at each other continuously.
“I haven’t done it once,” Kennedy said.
“I’ll show you a video after the game,” Eriksson replied.
“How about you walking around on my peel dancing around the house here,” Kennedy shot back.
“I’ll show you a video when it’s two metres over the hog line,” Eriksson responded before the teams actually started curling again in the 10th end.
Marc Kennedy acknowledged he “probably could have handled it better” after launching an expletive-laden outburst toward Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson, who accused him of breaking rules by “double-touching” — essentially, touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice — during Canada’s 8-6 win in round-robin play late Friday.
However, the 44-year-old Kennedy said he did not — and has never — deliberately taken to the ice “with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating.”
Footage circulating widely online appeared to show Kennedy breaching curling rules by touching the granite stone with his outstretched finger after he had already released it. Asked about the footage, 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.”
“And if somebody said to you, ‘Hey, do you double-touch all the time?’ I honestly, in that split second of a moment, I couldn’t even tell you if I do or not,” he said.
He added that he has his own theory, suggesting the whole thing might have been “premeditated planning to try to catch us.”
“They’ve come up with a plan to catch teams in the act,” Kennedy said.
The saga has rocked the usually sedate world of curling and it involves two teams who play each other regularly outside the Olympics and are among the best players in the game.
Kennedy receiving a verbal warning from governing body World Curling a day after the feisty back-and-forth with the Swedish team when fingers were pointed and the Canadian player repeatedly swore. He has not been formally charged with cheating by World Curling, which does not use video to review game play.
The organization opted to deploy two officials to monitor how players released their stones during Saturday’s afternoon session in the men’s competition. In that session, Canada lost 9-5 to Switzerland, and Sweden beat China 6-4.
Afterward, Eriksson said he “slept good, I’m not sure about him” — in reference to Kennedy — and said he chose that moment to call out Kennedy’s alleged rule-breaking because he’d seen it happen in the past. Eriksson said he has told officials in two previous events.
“We want to play a fair-and-square game, like you follow the rules,” Eriksson said. “And if we see something that’s not following the rules, we tell the opponents or the official. This time we did both.”
After a profanity-laced dispute between Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs and Sweden’s Team Niklas Edin on Friday at the Winter Olympics about double-touching of rocks, World Curling put out a statement on Saturday.
“The issue of second touches of the stone, specifically the granite, during the delivery was brought to the umpire’s attention,” World Curling wrote in a statement provided to Devin Heroux of CBC Olympics.
“Officials spoke with both teams and set game umpires at the hog line to monitor deliveries for three ends, which is the official protocol following this type of complaint.
“There were no hog-line violations or retouches of the stone during the observation period.”
In its statement Saturday, World Curling said: “During that meeting it was made clear to those officials that further inappropriate behaviour, determined by rule R.19 would result in additional sanctions.
“Rule R.19 states: ‘Improper conduct, foul or offensive language, equipment abuse, or wilful damage on the part of any team member is prohibited. Any violation may result in suspension of the offending person(s) by the curling organisation having jurisdiction.‘
CBC Olympics showed video Saturday of Eriksson and Kennedy exchanging more words during the mixed zone, where interviews with media are conducted, after Friday’s game.
As for delivery of a rock, there are several rules that appear to cover the topic.
Rule 5(e) in the curling rule book 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.”
Rule 5(d) says: “The curling stone must be delivered using the handle of the stone.”
Rule 9(a) states: “If a moving stone is touched, or is caused to be touched, by the team to which it belongs, or by their equipment, the touched stone is removed from play immediately by that team. A double touch by the person delivering the stone, prior to the hog line at the delivering end, is not considered a violation.”
The allegations kept coming.
During its game against Canada, the Swiss men’s team alerted umpires mid-match to their suspicion that a member of the Canadian team was again double-tapping, Swiss coach Glenn Howard said.
Howard is Canadian, and a well-known and highly-acclaimed curler himself.
“My whole career, you’d be like, ‘Ah, that’s okay’” if there was a minor infraction, said Howell, who said he didn’t know what to make of this latest flare-up.
In the early ends of Friday’s match, Sweden skip Niklas Edin notified officials of their complaints about Kennedy. An official then remained at the hog line — the thick green line before which curlers must release the stone — for three ends to monitor Canada’s curlers and no violations were recorded, World Curling said Saturday.
The online footage that appears to show Kennedy double-tapping the stone prompted some curling fans to question how the video was taken and point out that cameras are not usually stationed at the hog line.
A staffer for Swedish public broadcaster SVT said the channel had gotten the footage because they had moved their camera to the hog line after Sweden raised concerns about the double tapping early in the match. The camera operator stayed there until he was able to capture Kennedy’s pitch in the eighth end. Eriksson said Swedish TV had showed him that footage.
