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Canada’s women’s curling team, led by Rachel Homan, has found itself embroiled in a cheating controversy over allegations of double touching stones, a dispute they insist has nothing to do with them and continues to overshadow the Winter Olympics competition.
The row erupted after Sweden’s men’s team accused Canadian curlers of double touching their stones last Friday.
In response, World Curling initially announced that two officials would monitor the hog line – the point where curlers must release the stone – for the remainder of the competition.
However, the situation escalated for Homan’s team when one of her stones was removed from play for double touching during a subsequent loss to Switzerland, a decision she branded “insane”.
Speaking on Monday, Homan firmly rejected the accusations. “I think the word cheating came out of nowhere. It has nothing to do with cheating. There’s no chance that Canadians would ever intentionally cheat,” she stated.
“We don’t do that. We’re playing out there. We’re fierce. You know, things happen. People burn rocks. People go over the hog line – that’s just part of the sport.”
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Sweden accused Canada of double touching stones (REUTERS)
She added: “There’s judges and reviews to make sure everything stays within how it’s supposed to be played,” before concluding, “We don’t take lightly to feeling like someone thinks we’re cheating out there.”
The drama was further amplified by a “heated moment” between Canada’s Marc Kennedy and Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson during their game.
After Eriksson reportedly offered to show Kennedy video evidence of him touching a stone repeatedly, the Canadian responded with an expletive, which was picked up on broadcast.
Emma Miskew, second for the Canadian women’s team, commented on the men’s exchange: “It obviously was like a heated moment between two players that blew it up. We had nothing to do with that. So we felt like we were brought into a situation that we had no part in.”
World Curling subsequently scaled back its initial decision to increase officiating.
Following a meeting with national representatives on Saturday, the body confirmed that officials would only actively monitor for violations at the request of teams.
Miskew reflected on the situation, saying: “When the players started complaining, it puts them in a tough position, because they want to do their jobs and listen to the players that think that there’s a problem out there… But I’m happy with how the discussion went and what the ruling came to.”
