There was controversy during the curling at the Winter Olympics(Image: BBC)
World Curling has confirmed the Canadian curling squad have received a warning for their expletive-laden dispute with Sweden at the Winter Olympics. Team Canada’s Marc Kennedy was caught on microphone telling Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson to “f*** off” during live broadcast coverage.
He did not take kindly to Eriksson accusing him of touching his stone beyond the ‘hog line’, which contravenes the sport’s regulations. Heated exchanges continued between both sides throughout the encounter, which concluded with an 8-6 victory for Canada.
Since all curlers wear microphones during competition, every inappropriate comment was clearly audible to television audiences. Consequently, the BBC had to issue an apology to viewers, as the match aired before the 9pm watershed.
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Following the game, World Curling, clearly displeased with the incident, issued a statement confirming the Canadian side had been cautioned about their behaviour, while also providing clarification on technology usage and the regulations surrounding ‘double touching’. The governing body said: “Following the Friday evening session, World Curling spoke with the Canadian officials to issue a verbal warning regarding the language used by a Canadian men’s player during the game.
“During that meeting it was made clear to those officials that further inappropriate behaviour, determined by rule R.19, would result in additional sanctions.
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“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.'”.
The Swedish team were especially aggrieved by what they perceived as intentional double-touching by their Canadian opponents, with Kennedy coming under particular scrutiny. While slow-motion replays offered a reasonable perspective on whether players released stones before crossing the hog line, World Curling emphasised retrospective video evidence is not used by officials.
The governing body added: “World Curling does not currently use video replay to re-umpire game decisions. Decisions made during a game are final.
“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.'”
