Elite sport is tense, fraught and competitive. But still, you don’t expect a curling match to descend into finger-pointing, swearing and accusations of cheating.
When the men’s rinks of Canada and Sweden met at the Winter Olympics in Cortina on Friday, tempers became frayed.
The Swedes believed one of the Canadian players was repeatedly double-touching some of his stones – basically releasing them, before giving them another little nudge to correct their course. Not allowed.
After a little bit of back and forth, including protestations to the officials, irritation turned to anger. Suddenly, Canada’s Marc Kennedy and Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson were spitting swear words at each other across the sheet.
“I don’t like being accused of cheating after 25 years on tour and four Olympic Games,” said Kennedy. “So I told him [Eriksson] where to stick it. He might have been upset that he was losing…”
Canada went on to win 8-6, leaving the 2022 gold medal-winning Swedish rink without a win in their first three games.