Olympic Curling “Getting Mean Out There”

NOTE: Athlete post-game quotes in follow up story and also a second follow up.

Emotions ran high during Sweden’s Olympic men’s battle with Canada on Friday night, as defending champion and three-time Olympic medallist Niklas Edin lost his third match in a row at the Cortina Olympic Curling Stadium.

In the second and sixth ends, Sweden protested Canada’s occasional habit of “double-touching” the stone handles upon release and an on-ice official was consulted.

The Canadians later asked the officials to monitor the Swedish releases, and complained about a Swedish player moving – retrieving a rubber gripper – during a Brad Jacobs delivery. 

Things became positively overheated between the the ninth and 10th ends, when Swedish third Oskar Eriksson suggested “Apparently it’s okay touching the rock after the hogline, I dunno,”

Canada third Marc Kennedy asked “Who’s doing it?”

“You don’t know?” replied Eriksson. “It’s a couple.”

“Who?” demanded Kennedy.

Eriksson then pointed to Canada’s Brett Gallant, and then to Kennedy.

“I haven’t done it once,” said Kennedy, who then issued an expletive. “I haven’t done it once.”

“Okay,” replied Eriksson. “I’ll show you video after the game.”

Kennedy, who won Olympic gold at Vancouver 2010 and bronze at Beijing 2022, then asked Eriksson about the Swedes moving during Canadian deliveries, and offered another expletive.

Eriksson has four Olympic medals, and was a double-medallist at Beijing 2022.

Amateur sleuths, many based in Sweden, were quick to share video stills online and discuss the alleged infraction in forums such as Reddit.

A double-touch sees a player touch or brush the stone with his or her fingers after releasing the plastic handle. 

The second touch takes place on the stone granite itself. The sensor handle lights that blink red or green with each release – indicating a clean or “burned” stone – cannot register any physical touches on the granite.

Both teams requested the officials to manually watch the hoglines, an extremely unusual occurrence particularly when the sensor handles are activated.

The sport suffered from malfunctioning sensors prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, whereupon a lack of supply components led authorities to abandon them altogether.

Sensing a growing problem with players ignoring the hogline – or double-touching – World Curling hustled to find a new version of the sensors, and settled on a Czech company.

The Curling News discovered this new generation of sensors in September of 2024. 

The technology passed muster at recent championships in November and December, and are in place at Cortina.

“It’s getting mean out there,” said Canadian Olympian Mike Harris, providing analysis for CBC-TV. “Nobody likes being accused of anything.”

“I don’t like being accused of cheating after 25 years on tour and four Olympic Games,” said Kennedy after the game.

“He (Eriksson) pulled a hogline official on us to make sure we weren’t double touching. The hogline official was there for six ends. Never said a thing.”

Both athletes had more to say. Watch for a  followup story to be published shortly by The Curling News.

Brad Jacobs has a 25-15 career won/loss record against Edin, some of those coming with former teammates.

Since the 2022-23 season, Jacobs holds a 5-1 advantage over Edin.

Canada trailed by one in the eighth end when Edin, in deep trouble, tried a pick-triple.

The veteran’s throw was a touch wide, and Canada grabbed an enormous four-ender to take a 7-4 lead over Sweden.

In his team’s previous losses to Italy and Great Britain – two other medal threats at these Games – the Swedes suffered from a big end scored against them.

Team Edin has never started an Olympic competition with three straight losses. The squad finished fourth at Vancouver 2010, third at Sochi 2014, took silver at PyeongChang 2018 and finally gold four years ago at Beijing.

The flashpoints concluded a day which saw Canada’s top-ranked Rachel Homan suffer her first tournament loss to the United States.

Skip Tabitha Peterson drew for two points on her last throw to win 9-8. 

The USA women were previously 0-8 against Canadian women through 28 years of Olympic curling history.

“Obviously, we wanted to win that game,” said Homan. “But, you know, theres lots of games left and just take the lessons from that game.

“The ice is really good. (“We’re) just not making the shots.”

NOTE: Athlete post-game quotes in follow up story