02/17/26 12:30:00
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02/17 12:28 CST A cheating claim violated the 'spirit of curling' at the
Olympics. The sport is moving on
A cheating claim violated the 'spirit of curling' at the Olympics. The sport is
moving on
By STEVE DOUGLAS
AP Sports Writer
CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) --- First came the expletives. Then the
allegations. Then the media glare and hilarious memes.
Global interest in curling surged over the past week when a cheating
controversy erupted at the Winter Olympics, rocking a staid, 500-year-old sport
known for its etiquette, manners and friendliness.
After a wild few days for curling featuring plenty of verbal jousting and a
brief rule change, things have calmed down and both players and officials
appear ready to move on with the medal games approaching.
"It's the Olympics," said Canadian curler Ben Hebert, whose team has been a
central character in the controversy. "It'll be over in two weeks and everyone
will go back to covering curling in four years."
Yet the headline-grabbing saga has highlighted some issues in a sport eager for
exposure -- and one slowly becoming more professional --- but maybe isn't ready
for all the trappings that come with it.
Sweden crying foul over a rule infringement, an illegal double-touch by
Canada's Marc Kennedy in the act of releasing his stone down the ice, called
into question whether the so-called "spirit of curling" had been broken.
Curling, after all, has long been a tight-knit sport where players typically
call their own fouls, shake hands at the end of a match and share a beer or two
afterwards.
The Swedish and Canadian players have been long-time rivals but they're also
friendly. Couldn't they just have dealt with this behind closed doors without
all the bruising?
"That's where I think the spirit of curling is in a little bit of trouble,"
Kennedy said, "and honestly that's probably come from the quest for medals. But
it's OK. It's all about the evolution of the sport. There's opportunity here as
well, right? For the sport to really figure it out as we all go forward."
It seems the top of the sport isn't quite ready for that.
There are no video replays in curling, unlike with sports like soccer, cricket
and in the NFL, so officials aren't allowed to re-umpire decisions like the hog
line violation apparently committed by Kennedy when he poked one of the granite
stones with his outstretched finger after releasing it.
In response, curling's higher-ups first stationed umpires at the hog line to
check for future fouls, but then reverted to the traditional practice of
players policing themselves.
"We're trying to spread the word about our culture, and our culture is one
based on integrity, and honor, and friendship," World Curling President Beau
Welling told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "We live by this code
--- the spirit of curling --- where you're expected to have honorable conduct
on ice, but also off ice.
"Obviously, this has been tested a little bit this week. But, fundamentally,
that's who we are," he said. "And I really don't see that changing."
Some might see this as sweeping the issue under curling's rug.
Yet this is the Olympic Games --- it's serious business, being played out in
front of curling's biggest audience.
"Curling needs to professionalize a little bit," Canada Curling CEO Nolan
Thiessen told the AP at the Cortina Curling Center. "If we want to be where we
want to be as a sport, there's some steps we have to take, and some give and
take probably. You know, having officials making subjective calls ... there's a
lot of sports that have that. And we probably need to get there as opposed to,
?I think you did this' and ?Well, I don't think I did.'
"We're trying," he added, "to find the right balance as a sport."
And so, the show goes on.
The Olympics soon will be without Sweden's defending champion men's team, which
was officially eliminated from semifinal contention on Tuesday after a sixth
loss in seven matches in round-robin play.
"We maybe should have done something different and could have dealt with it
differently," Sweden skip Niklas Edin said of what he described as a "horrible
week."
Plenty of curling traditionalists will no doubt agree with that.
___
AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen and Associated Press writer Julia Frankel
contributed to this story.
___
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
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