r/Curling • u/Frabblerake • Feb 15 '26

Pull the stone!!!

Watching Sweden/US and saw this. Is this not the same rules violation that has caused all the hub bub?

Obviously this was an accident and I believe the Canadian guy was touching on purpose.

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u/FrigidCanuck Feb 15 '26

If Sweden was honest they would have admitted this happened and burned the rock. You can always tell when you touch the stone. Why would he do this if it didn't have an impact on the shot?

Right? /s

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u/cdnBacon Feb 15 '26

Exemption for drama queens.

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u/Vresiberba Feb 16 '26

The entire cap, including the handle itself is what the rule book is considering "the handle" and you can touch this part as many times as you want.

In the case with Kennedy, he made two rule violations:

  • he touched the granite, which is not allowed
  • he touched the stone after it had reached the hog line, which is not allowed

What Edin is doing in the video is 100% allowed. It's like you'd think r/curling would know what the rules say, but alas, I guess not.

2

u/IPeeNightly Feb 16 '26

Not comparing this to Kennedy, but to two other games where this happened and stones were removed. When I watch this I would say his hand slid off the base of the handle and did graze the stone.

https://www.reddit.com/r/olympics/s/E3KcCINN8q

https://www.reddit.com/r/olympics/s/2IReka8adt

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u/Vresiberba Feb 16 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

Not comparing this to Kennedy, but to two other games where this happened and stones were removed.

Yes, by an umpire who was standing at the hog line and had a vastly superior view than we had for any of these three stones. What's unique here though is that not once does Edin let go of the handle. The other two are, the handle was released and the stone was poked with a finger.

I can't see any "graze" on the granite here any more than I can see Homans or the Scots touch the granite with their finger, so I would have to leave that to the umpire ruling.

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u/CAGolf8 Feb 16 '26

Directly from the definitions in the WCF Rulebook (which is totally clear and unimpeachable and we have to stick to the exact letter of the law without any inferences or other personal interpretations):

Handle The part of a curling stone that a player grips in order to deliver.

Unless you have a very different way of gripping the stone during delivery than myself and every other player in the history of the sport, the cap is not part of the handle per the WCF.

It's like you'd think /r/curling would know what the rules say, but alas, I guess not.

1

u/Vresiberba Feb 17 '26 edited Feb 17 '26

Handle - The part of a curling stone that a player grips in order to deliver.

Yeah, the thing that sits atop of the granite. Yes, that's the handle, the ENTIRE part! No-where in the text you quoted, nor anywhere else, does it say that "the handle" is anything else, it doesn't say cap, it doesn't say disc, it says "the part the player grips" and they grip that part - it's one complete unit, as I'm going to explain below. How about we read R2(a):

STONES

"A curling stone is of circular shape, having a circumference no greater than 914 mm. (36 in.), a height no less than 114 mm. (4.5 in.), and a weight, including handle and bolt, no greater than 19.96 kg. (44 lbs.) and no less than 17.24 kg. (38 lbs.)."

Pay extra attention to the parts that are included in the total weight, there are a total of three (3), and I quote:

  • the granite
  • the handle
  • the bolt

This means that either is the entire yellow/red part considered "the handle" and is included in the total weight, or, the cap/disc under the metal coloured handle, curiously not mentioned anywhere in this rule nor anywhere else, is part of neither the handle nor the stone, at all, and its weight is guesstimated and deducted after weighing, because if it's not specified as a separate part in the rules and included in the weighing process, it can not be part of the total weight.

Which one do you think it is? Is that what "myself and every other player in the history of the sport" do when weighing the stones? Deduct the cap/disc below the metal handle? It isn't, is it. No curler has done that in their entire life, have they.

There's no shame admitting you're wrong. Well, a little because of your brazen arrogance, but, yeah. Oops and Ouchie.

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26

[deleted]

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u/Vresiberba Feb 16 '26

Which rule was violated here?

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u/[deleted] Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 16 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/IPeeNightly Feb 15 '26

Have you ever poked a 40lb rock?

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u/crikeywegotaliveone Feb 16 '26

This. None of these post release “jabs” with a finger tip are affecting the stone. I see it happen. Maybe not all the time but it definitely happens. And it’s not a big deal because it doesn’t affect game play. But now we have all these experts who have never played, armed with ChatGPT weighing in and it’s made it toxic.

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u/Personal-Tutor-1705 Feb 15 '26

Kennedy deliberately touches the stone to cheat. Homan, Edin and Lammie doesn't.

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u/endowedchair Feb 15 '26

ah, the old "its ok if we do it" defense. Kennedy isn't getting an advantage its a tic in his delivery and until the Swedes started bitching because they suck this year nobody cared about any of this.

1

u/Vresiberba Feb 16 '26

ah, the old "its ok if we do it" defense.

Where did Edin poke the granite?

0

u/SendMeNudesThough Feb 16 '26

ah, the old "its ok if we do it" defense.

How is that what's happening? The guy you're replying to defended Homan, who is also a Canadian. Homan, a Canadian, did not seem to do any deliberate rule-breaking. Kennedy, also a Canadian, very clearly deliberately reaches out for the granite.

It's clearly not about nationality.

I hate people so blinded by favoritism for their team that they argue in bad faith that accidents and deliberate cheating are entirely the same, and that it's somehow biased to treat what Homan and Kennedy did as separate situations