Double trouble as Canadian curlers accused of illegal touches at Winter Olympics

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The Canadian curler at the center of a spiraling controversy at the Milan Cortina Olympics insisted Saturday he was not a cheat and postulated that his team might be the target of a “premeditated” attack by Sweden, one of its biggest rivals for the gold medal.

Marc Kennedy acknowledged he “probably could have handled it better” after launching an expletive-laden outburst toward Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson, who accused him of breaking rules by “double-touching” — essentially, touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice — during Canada’s 8-6 win in round-robin play late Friday.

However, the 44-year-old Kennedy said he did not, and that he has never deliberately taken to the ice “with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating.”

Footage circulating online appeared to show Kennedy breaching curling rules by touching the granite stone with his outstretched finger after he had already released it. Asked about the footage, Kennedy said: “Yes, I’m not even going there. I’ve never even known that to be a concern before. It’s never ever come up in conversation.”

“And 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 said.

He added that he has his own theory, suggesting 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.

The saga has rocked the usually sedate world of curling and it involves teams that play each other regularly outside the Olympics and include some of the best players in the game.

In another twist late Saturday night, the Canadian women's team was accused by match officials of the same double-touch violation, this time by veteran skip Rachel Homan in the first end against Switzerland. The Canadian curlers looked incredulous and angry.

“Zero percent chance,” Homan said before the match continued.

Kennedy received a verbal warning from governing body World Curling a day after the feisty back-and-forth with the Swedish team, when fingers were pointed and the Canadian player repeatedly swore. He has not been formally charged with cheating by World Curling, which does not use video to review game play.

The organization opted to deploy two officials to monitor how players released their stones during Saturday's afternoon session in the men's competition. In that session, Canada lost 9-5 to Switzerland and Sweden beat China 6-4.

Afterward, Eriksson said he “slept good, I'm not sure about him” — in reference to Kennedy — and said he chose that moment to call out Kennedy's alleged rule-breaking because he'd seen it happen in the past. Eriksson said he has told officials in two previous events.

“We want to play a fair-and-square game, like you follow the rules,” Eriksson said. “And if we see something that’s not following the rules, we tell the opponents or the official. This time we did both.”

The allegations kept coming.

During their game against Canada, the Swiss men alerted umpires mid-match to their suspicion that a member of the Canadian team was again double-touching, Swiss coach Glenn Howard said.

Howard is Canadian and a well-known and highly acclaimed curler.

“My whole career, you’d be like, ‘Ah, that’s OK’” if there were a minor infraction, said Howell, who said he didn’t know what to make of this latest flare-up.

In the early ends of Friday's match, Sweden skip Niklas Edin notified officials of his team's complaints about Kennedy. An official then remained at the hog line — the thick green line before which curlers must release the stone — for three ends to monitor Canada’s curlers and no violations were recorded, World Curling said Saturday.

The online footage that appears to show Kennedy double-touching the stone prompted some fans to question how the video was taken and point out that cameras are not usually stationed at the hog line.

A staffer for Swedish public broadcaster SVT said the channel had gotten the footage because its camera operator had moved the camera to the hog line after Sweden raised concerns about the double touch early in the match. The camera operator stayed there until he was able to capture Kennedy’s throw in the eighth end. Eriksson said Swedish TV had showed him that footage.