Canada vs Sweden Curling Match Erupts in Controversy at Olympics | Double Touching Accusations & Heated Exchange

Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – A contentious match at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo saw Canada’s Brad Jacobs’ team secure an 8-6 victory over Sweden’s Niklas Edin on Friday, but the win was overshadowed by accusations of cheating and a heated exchange between players.

The controversy erupted late in the game, with Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson alleging that Canada’s Marc Kennedy was illegally double-touching the stones after release. The claim prompted a halt in play as Swedish team members requested officials monitor Canadian deliveries for further infractions. Canada responded by asking officials to scrutinize Sweden’s releases as well, creating a palpable tension on the ice.

The situation escalated further after Sweden scored two points in the penultimate end, leaving Canada with the hammer and a narrow 7-6 lead. Eriksson confronted Kennedy, stating he would provide video evidence of the alleged double-touching. Kennedy’s response was blunt and profanity-laced: “I haven’t done it once,” Kennedy said on the ice, “You can f–k off.” Eriksson persisted, promising to show a replay demonstrating Kennedy’s hand allegedly extending over the hog line by “two meters.” Kennedy retorted with another expletive-filled dismissal, telling Eriksson to “just f–k off.”

After the match, Kennedy defended his actions, stating, “I don’t like being accused of cheating, so I told him what I thought of it. I’ve been curling professionally for 25 years.” He acknowledged the competitive intensity of the Olympic environment, adding, “It’s good. It’s sport. It’s the Olympics. Both teams are trying to win.”

This year’s Olympic curling competition features a new technological safeguard against such accusations. Electronic handles have been implemented on the stones, designed to flash red if a player maintains contact with the stone beyond the hog line – the designated release point. These handles incorporate touch sensors that interact with a magnetic strip embedded in the ice.

Kennedy referenced the new technology in his defense, stating, “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. Because we’re the wrong team to do that to. So I don’t care.”

The loss was the second consecutive defeat for Edin’s team, following an earlier loss to Great Britain and Italy, putting their title defense in jeopardy. Eriksson clarified that the Swedish team believed Kennedy was touching the stone itself, rather than the electronic handle, thus bypassing the sensor’s detection system. “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.” He added that officials initially misinterpreted the rules, believing any contact with the stone was permissible, before realizing that only contact with the electronic handle was allowed.

Swedish skip Edin expressed disappointment over the heated exchange, stating, “We’re all super good friends out there. We’ve known them for 20 years. And [rule violations have] 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 rulebooks, but it’s what it is.”

World Curling released a statement confirming that umpires were stationed at the hog line to monitor deliveries for three ends following the initial complaint. “There were no hog line violations or retouches of the stone during the observation,” the statement concluded.

The win moved Canada’s Team Jacobs to a 3-0 record in the round-robin stage of the tournament. The incident, however, is likely to linger, adding an extra layer of intensity to future matchups between the two curling powerhouses. The outcome of this game, and the controversy surrounding it, underscores the high stakes and competitive spirit of Olympic curling.