The Canadian men’s curling team closed out a successful 2-0 day at the 2026 Winter Olympics with a narrow win over Sweden.
But before a winner could be crowned in Cortina d’Ampezzo, there were tensions between the two teams.
Following the ninth end, Canada and Sweden broke out into a heated verbal confrontation on the ice at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium. The incident was sparked by Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson claiming Canada’s Marc Kennedy double-touched his rock after releasing it before the hog line.
‘Apparently it’s OK touching the rock after the hog line,’ Eriksson said while clearing the house, according to the Toronto Star. Per the Star, Eriksson’s comments were immediately answered by responses of ‘who?’ ‘I haven’t done it once’ and ‘Don’t chirp’ by Kennedy.
Canada closed out its 8-6 win over Sweden with a point in the 10th end, moving them to 3-0 in the round-robin standings.
The issue the Swedes had, according to Reuters, was that they thought Kennedy and Canada were making contact with the stone beyond the hog line, which is the line on the sheet of ice where curlers must let go of the curling stone during delivery.
World Curling has introduced electronic handles on the stones at the 2026 Winter Olympics, a technology piece that will tell officials if double-touching with the stone happened. Eriksson mentioned Sweden thought Kennedy was touching the stone and not the handle containing the sensor, which would not set off the red lights.
‘He asked who we thought was over the hog line and I pointed out who we thought was touching the rock,’ Eriksson said. ‘It was obviously not a red light, but some players are touching the rock, according to us. And that’s not allowed. … We told the officials. They came out and they misread the rules, sadly.
‘Because they thought double-touching any part of the rock is OK. And then they found out that was wrong. You can only touch the electronic part of the handle.’
Asked about the incident following the match, Kennedy said he didn’t like being accused of cheating.
‘It’s good. It’s (a) sport. It’s the Olympics. Both teams are trying to win,’ Kennedy said after the matchup, according to Reuters. ‘Oskar was accusing us of cheating. I didn’t like it. I’ve been curling professionally for 25 years.’
He later added: ‘There’s hog line devices on there. I don’t know. And he’s still accusing us of cheating. I didn’t like it. So I told him where to stick it.’
In a statement to Reuters, World Curling said that umpires had been set at the hog line to monitor deliveries for three ends after the issue was first raised during the game, but that there were ‘no hog line violations or retouches of the stone during the observation.’
Both teams return to action on Saturday, Feb. 14 for one game each. Canada takes on Switzerland at 8:05 a.m. ET, while Sweden takes on China at the same time.
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