The curling competitions at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, Italy, have been rocked by controversy this weekend as accusations of cheating – specifically “double-touching” the stones – fly between teams.
The latest incident occurred Sunday in a match between Great Britain and Germany, with Scottish curler Bobby Lammie facing allegations of illegally touching the stone twice during release. Despite the accusations, Team Britain ultimately secured a 9-4 victory.
How did the Winter Olympics’ curling controversy start?
The issues first surfaced Friday night when Sweden’s men’s team accused their Canadian opponents of the infraction, sparking a heated exchange and immediate media attention. This initial complaint set off a chain of events that has now embroiled multiple teams in the controversy.
On Saturday, World Curling responded by deploying additional officials to monitor the “hog line” – the designated release point for stones. This increased scrutiny led to a stone being disqualified from Canada’s Rachel Homan during a match against Switzerland, after she was alleged to have double-touched the stone.
Curlers have noted that the double-touching infraction is rarely called with this level of intensity and can be difficult to definitively identify.
Canada slam ‘despicable’ decision, ‘untrained’ officials
Canadian men’s captain Brad Jacobs expressed strong dissatisfaction with the situation, believing his team was being unfairly targeted following the Swedish complaints.
“What happened with [Homan’s] rock was despicable,” he said. “I felt immediately as Canadian curlers we were targeted. To move out and pull her rock like that, I suppose it was a tragedy.”
Canadian coach Paul Webster questioned the preparedness of the additional officials assigned to the hog line by World Curling.
“I think we have untrained people doing things that they’ve never done before,” he said. “I have a lot of respect for people that are here volunteering their time but we’re not at some bonspiel in Saskatchewan just trying things out, we’re at the Olympics.”
British stone removed vs. Germany
World Curling reversed its decision to increase officiating on Sunday, but not before further controversy arose. British curler Bobby Lammie also had a stone removed from play during his team’s match against Germany.
Responding to the incident, Canada’s Jacobs stated: “If he threw that rock that way against us, personally I would never ever wish that rock to be removed. He did nothing wrong in my opinion.”
He added that he was relieved to see that the issue wasn’t solely focused on the Canadian team — “which is good,” he said.
Curling: should referees utilize video replays?
The ongoing controversy has ignited a debate regarding the potential implementation of video replay in curling.
“If they bring that in, I think it probably disrupts the speed of play,” said Sweden’s Johanna Heldin. “We’ve always been a sport that tries to play by the rules and have a high level of sportsmanship, so hopefully People can figure that back out.”
Tara Peterson of the United States expressed a different viewpoint, stating she would “absolutely” support the use of video replays. “There are instances where an instant replay would be huge,” she said.
Edited by: Alex Berry
