By John Hodge

Curling is generally considered a gentleman’s game, which is why it was surprising to hear cheating allegations and expletives being tossed around during Friday night’s game between Canada and Sweden.

During the break between the second and third ends, the broadcast showed Swedish skip Niklas Edin conferring with his bench. He seemed unhappy with the delivery of at least one of the Canadian players, alleging that they were double-touching some stones.

“If he does it again, is it a burned rock?” Edin then asked two on-site officials. “If he does it again after the hog line?”

It’s unclear how the officials replied as neither appeared to be wearing microphones. It seems Edin wasn’t accusing the Canadian of double-gripping the handle, which should have been detected by the rock’s electronic sensors.

Instead, he seemed to believe the Canadians were releasing the handle, then making contact with the granite on their throwing hand. “Can you touch the granite at any point, though, during delivery?” Edin asked the officials.

“You’re not touching the handle, you’re touching the granite. There’s no way you can do that.” Oskar Eriksson, the team’s third, then entered the conversation. “You saw them touching the rock, right?” he asked one official.

“Is it allowed to do it or not?” Ben Hebert, Canada’s lead, then approached the same official to accuse Eriksson of double-touching stones as well.

“I saw Oskar double-touch the back of the rock there,” he said. “Make sure we watch it.”

One of the Swedish players, likely Eriksson, then addressed Hebert from off-camera. “Is it cheating playing left-handed?” he asked.

The first part of Hebert’s reply was unclear as his microphone had been turned down, though he appeared to question if the complaint was legitimate. “Same to you, man,” replied the Swedish player.

Tensions remained high late into the game. Between the ninth and tenth ends, the Swedes continued to accuse the Canadians of double-touching stones. When the Canadians asked who they were accusing, Eriksson appeared to gesture toward Canadian third Kennedy.

“I haven’t done it once. You can f--k off,” said Kennedy, clearly angry. “I can show you the video after the game,” replied Eriksson.

Kennedy then appeared to accuse the Swedes of trying to distract him while delivering an earlier shot. “How about you walking around on my peel last end, dancing around in the house here? How about that?” said Kennedy. “Come on, Oskar, just f--k off.”

Canada ended up winning the game 8-6 thanks to a four-ender scored in the eighth end. The victory improved the team’s record to 3-0, while the Swedes fell to 0-3.

Postgame reaction

Marc Kennedy, Canadian third:

"I don't like being accused of cheating after 25 years on tour and four Olympic Games," Kennedy said. "(Oskar Eriksson) pulled a hog-line official on us to make sure we weren't double touching. The hog-line official was there for six ends. Never said a thing."

Kennedy also addressed why he swore at Eriksson mid-match. "He's still accusing us of cheating, and I didn't like it. So I told him where to stick it, because we're the wrong team to do that to. So I don't care. He might have been upset that he was losing," he said.

Kennedy added that he spoke to the Swedish team post-game. "I have a ton of respect for Oskar Eriksson. He's one of the best players to ever play. And I just told him, 'I would never do that to you. I would never accuse you of cheating,'" he said.

Niklas Edin, Swedish skip:

"I tried to stay out of it. I tried to keep my composure. And then obviously, you hear both players on the ice and off the ice stating that handles are let go and then (a) hand following through, poking the rock itself and obviously that's not allowed. It's pretty clearly stated," Edin said. “So it's just sad to see in a sport where it's a lot about sportsmanship, and we're all super good friends out there. We've known them for 20 years. And it's happened many times before, so it's just sad that it gets to heated discussions on the ice instead of just curling, according to the rule books, but it's what it is."

Edin also suggested the officials weren't properly calling the allegation.

“It's happened (at) many championships before, so it's just surprising that it's still happening this many years later, and that the umpires do nothing about it," Edin said. "They see it happen and state pretty clearly that, yes, I saw it happening, and I'm reading the rule book for you now, and yes, it's not allowed, but we don't act on it. So that's interesting to me.”

Lead photo by Anil Mungal/TCG