Canadian Curling Team Claims Sweden Set Them Up In Cheating Scandal

Canadian curler Marc Kennedy claims he and his teammates were a part of an elaborate trap to make it look like they were cheating.

During a Feb. 13 match, Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson said that Kennedy illegally “double-touched” the stone. This claim was later backed up by video evidence. Kennedy cursed out Eriksson on TV for these allegations, and now claims they were set up by Team Sweden. 

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In curling, athletes slide a 40-pound granite stone toward a circular target called “the house.” After initial release, teammates use brushes to control the stone’s trajectory to get it as close to the middle as possible.

The athlete releasing the stone may touch it only once. If caught touching it twice, the stone is removed from play. There is a line called the “hog line” where the athlete must remove the stone from their hands. It’s also a violation not to release the stone from your hands before passing the hog line. 

There were 147 curling matches scheduled between men’s, women’s and mixed events. Sweden took the gold medal, the United States took the silver medal, and Italy took home the bronze medal in front of their home fans in the mixed event.

Italy and Sweden were expected to do well in curling. Both teams won medals in the mixed event at the 2022 Winter Olympics. However, the United States upset China to power their surprise silver medal win in the 2026 Winter Olympics.

The women’s gold medal game is on Feb. 22.