Olympics curling controversy escalates as Britain accused of infraction

A cheating controversy is engulfing curling at the Winter Olympics, centring on the formidable Canadian team. Both their men's and women's squads have been accused of the same infraction: double-touching the curling stone after its release.

The dispute widened on Sunday when increased surveillance led to a stone thrown by the British men's team being removed for the same alleged violation that affected the Canadians over the past two days.

This comes as the historic curling powerhouse finds its reputation bruised. Their mixed doubles team failed to medal, and the women's team cannot afford further losses if they hope to advance.

Here's a look at the whole controversy and why it has exploded:

In the ninth end of Britain's round-robin game against Germany on Sunday, officials said Scottish curler Bobby Lammie had touched a stone after releasing it down the ice. Such “double-touching” is against the rules. Britain won the match 9-4.

The controversy began on Friday when Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson accused Canadian curler Marc Kennedy of breaking the rules by touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice. Kennedy blew up, launching an expletive-laden outburst.

That was before video appearing to show a clear double-touch by Kennedy circulated on social media, taken by Swedish public broadcaster SVT. Still, he maintained his innocence. The Canadians won the match, 8-6.

Late Saturday, an umpire accused acclaimed Canadian skip Rachel Homan of the same infraction in Canada's match against Switzerland. The umpire stopped play and the stone was removed from play. Homan looked shocked and denied the allegation.

Again, video spread on social media appearing to show her double-touch. The Canadians lost to the Swiss, 8-7.

There are rules against double-touching

After the uproar, World Curling clarified that double-tapping is not allowed, issuing a statement: “During forward motion, touching the granite of the stone is not allowed. This will result in the stone being removed from play."

World Curling also said it would designate two officials to move between the four curling matches during each round but noted it was “not possible” to have umpires stationed at each hog line — where the stones must be released by hand — during every game.

The added attention could raise nerves on the ice. Some curlers said the double-touching infraction had never been called out with this intensity in past competitions and it can be difficult to tell if someone is guilty of it.

It was not known whether officials were watching some teams more closely than others. World Curling says it does not use video replays for reviewing game play.

Until Sunday, the allegations had been limited to Canadian curlers, who represent one of the world's most fervent fan bases.

Asked about the footage, Kennedy said: "If somebody said to you, ‘Hey, do you double-touch all the time?’ I honestly, in that split second of a moment, I couldn’t even tell you if I do or not.”

He then suggested the whole thing might have been “premeditated planning to try to catch us.”

“They’ve come up with a plan to catch teams in the act,” Kennedy said.

Homan, meanwhile, postulated that she was being unfairly targeted because of the controversy on the men’s side.

“I don’t understand the call. I’ll never understand it. We’ve never done that,” she said. “It has nothing to do with us.”

Olympic curlers had varying opinions on whether umpires — like those in other sports — should begin using video replays to adjudicate disputes or verify calls.

“If they bring that in, I think it probably disrupts the speed of play," said Johanna Heldin, the alternate for the Swedish women's team. “We’ve always been a game that tries to play by the rules and have that high sportsmanship level, so hopefully we can figure that back out.”

U.S. women's curlers had a different view. Tara Peterson said she'd “absolutely” support video replay.

“There’s instances where an instant replay would be huge,” she said.

“I feel like there’s a lot of other sports that do it,” said her sister, skip Tabitha Peterson.

As fierce as the competition can be, curling has a quiet camaraderie to it even though there have been scandals (see: Broomgate, a sweeping-related headache that World Curling believes it solved last June). So it sticks out when there are allegations of cheating.

Canada is also the top nation in curling, easily its biggest market and where the biggest non-Olympic competitions tend to take place. They are taking it personally that their integrity is coming under attack in front of a global audience at the Olympics, which touts the values of respect and friendship.

The athletes playing for Canada and Sweden used to be close off the ice – huge rivals, sure, but admiring of each other’s curling skills. Now there’s clear animosity between the teams, which is intriguing for the casual viewer but a sad blow to the curling community.

Canada’s curlers are where they don’t want to be in the middle of a Winter Olympics: on the back foot, not just questioning their technique – “We’ll make some adjustments, release-wise, if we have to,” Kennedy said – but also srambling to be in the mix for medals at the end of the week.

Kennedy had the worst shot success of Canada’s four players in its only game Saturday, according to tournament statistics. Canada lost 9-5 to Switzerland, a team it was expected to beat.

All eyes are on both teams now. The Canadian men would not face Sweden again before the semifinals, should both teams make it, and that would be must-see TV whether you’re a curling fan or not.