Canada men’s curling remained undefeated in round-robin competition Friday during the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, but only after tension overheated on the ice.
Following the ninth end of an 8-6 Canada victory over 2022 Olympic champion Sweden, which is now a ghastly 0-3 in its gold medal defense, Swedish third Oskar Eriksson levied a serious cheating allegation.
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He did so against Canada third Marc Kennedy, whom Eriksson accused of double-touching stones beyond the hog line.
“I haven’t done it once,” Kennedy said. “You can f*** off.”
Eriksson then asked, “You haven’t done it once?”
An impassioned Kennedy reiterated while pointing toward himself, “I haven’t done it once.”
Eriksson said back, “I’ll show you a video after the game.”
The heated back-and-forth continued, with Kennedy hurling more profanities Eriksson’s way.
By rule, a double touch prior to the hog line — the boundary before which the thrower must release the stone for it to be considered in play — isn’t considered a violation.
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World Curling introduced electronic handles on the stones at this year’s Games. Triggered by a touch sensor, as well as a magnetic strip in the ice, they flash red if players are still touching the handle after the hog line.
But the Swedes appeared to be contending that the Canadians, namely Kennedy, were making contact with the granite after releasing the handle. Eriksson said that’s why the red light wasn’t going off, per Reuters.
Long before the exchange between Eriksson and Kennedy between the ninth and 10th end, Sweden asked officials to watch for Canada double-touching. Canada requested that officials also keep an eye on Sweden’s deliveries.
In a statement, as reported by Reuters, World Curling said umpires were monitoring the hog line for three ends after the issue was first brought up.
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“There were no hog line violations or retouches of the stone during the observation,” the statement said, per Reuters.
Kennedy told the National Post afterward that playing the Swedes is a battle and that the teams have quite a bit of history that goes back several years.
“I have a ton of respect for Oskar Eriksson,” he said, per the National Post. “He’s one of the best players to ever play. I just told him … I would never accuse you of cheating. I’ve been on tour for 25 years. He pulled a hog line official on us to make sure we weren’t double-touching. The hog line official was there … never said a thing, and he’s still talking about it in the ninth end.”
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Swedish skip Niklas Edin was disappointed the quarrel took place.
“We’re all super good friends out there,” he said, per Reuters.
“We’ve known them for 20 years. And [rule violations] happened many times before, so it’s just sad that it gets to heated discussions on the ice instead of just curling, according to the rulebooks, but it’s what it is.”