Fix this, and fix it now
I’ve been around the game for a long time.
Since 1983. As a competitor, coach (briefly), consultant, communications official, journalist and media owner.
I’ve worked for World Curling, which is about to get caught in the crossfire of this blast furnace.
I’ve even won awards.
I’m now putting my good name to a published story that names Chinese high-performance curling competitor Li Zhichao as a cheater.
Because I saw it with my own eyes.
I’ve seen curling cheats before. With my own eyes. On the ice. On television. On grainy YouTube videos. With brushes touching running (moving) stones, with brusher’s feet touching stones.
The Curling News, believe it or not, recently published a story of a false cheating accusation.
Now I’ve finally seen an instance of cheating on TV and online in the year 2025, in high-quality sourced video from which there can be zero doubt.
Li Zhichao was brushing a stone thrown by his skip, Xu Xiaoming, on and off, against Norway. During the last moment of brushstroke, before the stone struck a guard, Li swung his brush handle and smacked the stone off line, before contact.
He rapped it so hard, the stone jumped.
Frankly, I’m surprised the on-ice microphones didn’t pick up the sound.
A discussion ensued, between Norway skip Magnus Ramsfjell and Xu. Ramsfjell wasn’t happy. But I’m assuming the Chinese denied the infraction—yes, touching a stone with your brush is illegal—and because curling is the gentleman’s game, nothing could be done.
I can make no other assumption, because after a timeout, the game continued.
This is beyond terrible. This is a nightmare.
It wasn’t the first time something like this has happened this week at the world men’s curling championship in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.
There have been other alleged instances involving China, in fact. Something about a kicked stone in China’s game against Germany, which dropped a steal of three to a steal of two. China went on to win that game by a single point. The Germans apparently complained, but to no avail.
There have been allegations of the Chinese women’s team and their brushing abilities at the recent world women’s championship in South Korea.
Apparently they were “dumping” which, for the uninitiated, is basically illegal sweeping in an era where illegal sweeping is permitted because the rules governing sweeping are toothless, and the organizations governing the sport have allowed their teeth to fall out.
I’m not mentioning the names of any players in that game against Germany. Nor am I mentioning the names of any Chinese women’s fours players. That’s because I didn’t see those instances with my own eyes.
But, Mr. Li … I saw you. With my own eyes. In 4K video.
The entire curling world saw you—and if anyone reading this hasn’t seen anything yet, well, here it is.
I don’t need to know that Devin Heroux is a most reputable journalist (although I do) to point out his use of the words “egregious” and “deliberate.”
I don’t need to be in Moose Jaw to see this in person. (We have Saskatchewan’s own Guy Scholz on site, at any rate, and he’s been killing it all week.)
This is, hands down, the worst thing I ever seen or heard of in my 42 years in this sport.
“I have competed against China for the better part of the past 15 years (minus the past few) ... it’s a team I have never trusted on the ice and for good cause,” said former Australia skip Jay Merchant, in a reply tweet to Heroux’s post.
“There is no place for this sort of thing in curling (in women’s or men’s) recall the dumping in the women’s worlds ... (World Curling) need to look at sanctions.”
I reached out to Merchant for further comment. The competitor, former cop and current lawyer had this to add:
“The video was clear and the Norwegians were put in a position they shouldn’t have been put in ... I feel for them.”
John Cullen is another reputable curling source. His view, posted online:
“You hope this is not intentional but the video certainly suggests otherwise. Ugly look for China after the women’s team was dumping all over rocks at their worlds and the men’s team kicked a rock earlier in the week too and said nothing.”
China defeated Norway in this morning’s playoff game, and as I started writing this they were on the ice again, playing a semifinal match against Switzerland (they ended up losing, and Canada lost to Scotland in the other semi).
They’re not suspended. Not the player who was caught red-handed, not the team.
China was playing for an Olympic berth at Milano-Cortina 2026, as well as a spot in a world championship final.
What if something else had happened in that semifinal?
What could happen to curling, if this crap doesn’t get fixed?
My sport used to be a laughingstock in the sport world, and there are still many who believe this, almost 30 years after Olympic status started changing minds.
Is there another video angle of this incident, by the way?
Why yes, there is.
Upon approach, World Curling sent Heroux a statement. It reads:
We are aware of the situation. The Norway team called a technical time-out at the time to discuss the issue within the teams, and decided to let things stand and continue the game. There has been no other complaint from Norway regarding this.
The umpires step in when they see a situation, but video replay is not allowed in curling as it is not fairly distributed across every game in the competition.
This is what happens, folks, when you throw up your hands and decide that the one thing that sets you apart from every sport in the world that involves a delivered object—brushing—simply cannot be properly policed.
As a result, it’s the nightmare scenario: a player or players in the year 2025 who are deciding to blatantly cheat, and break the rules, because they think they can get away with it.
They may be absolutely right. And now it’s up to World Curling and domestic governing bodies to take a stand.
I haven’t looked at a rule book in years and I’m not going to. I’m not going to spend time searching rules that have changed more times in the past 20 years than anyone can keep track of, just so I can tell World Curling what rule they should quote when dropping the hammer on the offender/offenders.
Free Guard Zone this and FGZ that. Three-rock, four-rock, five-rock.
Number of teams, formats, Page Playoff, Page Qualifier. Yes tick. No tick.
OQE, Pre-OQE, replace Pacific with PanCon etc.
The beat goes on, the changes never end, and it’s easy to get sick of it all.
You’d think World Curling could use “extraordinary circumstances” to make something happen right now, mid-championship.
They’ve used those words (or similar) before.
They used extraordinary circumstances to cancel championships, during the arrival of the COVID pandemic.
They used extraordinary circumstances to ban Russia and Belarus from the sport, a decision which has been renewed multiple times over multiple years and which remains in force today.
Now they’re faced with “egregious” and “deliberate” cheating at their flagship event—the men’s world championship—and the eyes of the sport world are upon them.
This is worse than the original Broomgate—not to mention the sequel, as well—and it threatens the sport and its status in the Olympic movement.
Fix this, and fix it now.