Canada have been hit with fresh allegations of cheating at the Winter Olympics after a women’s game against Switzerland was clouded in controversy. On Friday, Canada’s men’s team got into a verbal scrap with Sweden during their 8-6 victory after a fierce dispute over claims of double-touching broke out on the ice.
The Swedish team accused members of the Canadian side of double touching, which is when stones are touched on or after the hog line, the point by which a stone must be released.
And the drama rolled into Saturday when Canadian curler Rachel Homan had her stone removed after an official ruled that she had touched it again after releasing the handle during her side’s 8-7 defeat to Switzerland. Homan protested, but, according to World Curling’s rules, there are no official replays, and the official’s final call stands.
“Absolutely not,” a fuming Homan said after the call. Her team-mates were also outraged by the decision with the team’s second, Emma Miskew, saying: “It looked like a really good throw to us from the side, so I’m confused at that.”
Horman then said: “Zero percent chance. There’s no way, I’d love to see a video.” After the game, a still fuming Horman said: “I don’t understand the call. I’ll never understand it. We’ve never done that. It has nothing to do with us.”
After Friday’s drama in the men’s game, Curling Canada released a statement on both the cheating allegations and Marc Kennedy’s foul-mouthed outburst on TV. The statement read: “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 hogline 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.”
But while Kennedy rued his choice of language, he has no regrets about ‘defending’ himself and his team-mates. He said: “You can’t take it (the swearing) back. You learn from it, move on and try to get the focus back on the curling.
“But I’ll be honest, my whole life, when my integrity has been questioned, sometimes that’s the response I have.
“I can’t think of once in my entire career where I’ve done something to gain a competitive advantage by cheating. I take that very seriously. And it’s been a really long career. So when you get called out, my instinct was to be a little bit of a bulldog.
“I don’t regret defending myself or my team-mates in that moment. I just probably regret the language I used.”
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