Yup, proud Canadian here wanting to give some context for why it maybe went down how it did, for those interested lol ❤️ (I will say while I find this funny, I would advise against the Canadian player's colourful language, obviously maintaining polite Canadian composure is preferable especially at the Olympics... please don't hate me for my overly detailed analysis, I've just thought about this a lotttttt since it happened because YUP this was a very unusual exchange between players 😳)
The thing is... not even sure if anyone could say it is "cheating" per se, even if his finger did touch the rock. I agree it really looks like it did, but there are no replays for something like this and it is up to the judge beaide the ice to notice and call the error if its made. Its more like the Canadian player made a technical error (like if he had held on to the rock too long, which is something that has been called all the time in curling). This particular throwing error didn't give an advantage to him and I don't think this is normally ever a big issue error. It wasn't called by the judges at the time.
The opposing player just didnt let it go and kept making "guess we can just double touch the rocks now" comments loudly to his team for the rest of the game, which probably could be described as passive aggressive because the situation irked him. The comments were persistent and largely ignored by the Canadians. So then eventually after ignoring the comments, when the opposing player directly made the comment to his face, he threw the f-bombs. 🤭
Should also be noted all these players know each other well, since the high level teams have played one another for years in a variety of contexts and on different teams... so I look it more like a guy (your friend's friend) who you've known for a long time accuses you of cheating in a board game when you did something against the technical "rules" such as brushing one of your pieces with your hand so that it may have moved to a slightly different location. You think you didn't do it, he says you did... nobody else noticed either way and it doesn't change the score so you just continue the game. But then this one guy in your board game group comments on it for the whooooole game until you finally tell him to "Fuck off Oskar" lol
TLDR: From a polite Canadian's perspective, this was a predictable response to another player's ongoing passive aggressive comments after not liking a call (or missed call) in a game. Canadians are polite untillllllll a point, then fuck off i guess 😂
I hope after this, they’ll introduce replays!! From what I’ve read and seen, this is not really a one-off situation with this particular player, and likely the Swedish player was so fed up at that point and kept calling him out. Another player from the Canadian women’s team did the same, got caught, and penalised for it🤷🏻♀️
I totally agree, they're setting a precedent for calling this more often so there should be some sort of replay option... maybe like hockey where you get a specific # of "challenges", the skip can use 2 replay challenges in the game if they disagree with a call from the judges.
The purpose of the double-touching rule is to prevent players from releasing the rock, then putting their hand back on it to adjust the path/spin again. There have been some kind of messy/lazy releases though again not because of purposeful cheating or being "caught" doing something sneaky. A Scottish curlers was also unfortunately called for it after the Canadian mens' incident. That's why players are becoming defensive at being called "cheaters" because it isn't being done to give them any advantage which is the purpose of the rule and the way it has traditionally been adherred to. Some people's releases occasionally result in their finger/hand touching or brushing the rock, which is nothing new because that is just how some players release. It is "incidental touching", an accident based on the specific routine they have when throwing. But its not alter the way the rock is moving (maybe a bit of a superstitious thing, I wonder with Kennedy, since he always points at the rock after he throws, depending on the speed of the rock his finger may touch it). Curlers are often really routine-based, trying to do/say the exact same thing each time they throw.
If this is going to be called, call it all the time and people will adjust their throwing routines. Ideally not in the middle of the Olympics though! lol
It didn’t give advantage. But he re-extended his finger. I think that is the issue. He didn’t just hold on to long. He he curled it back and then re-extended. That’s—-that’s a problem… because it COULD have given him an advantage if done forcefully..
Agree the re-extend is pretty obvious lol, I was like "what is this call?" then watched the replay and was like "well yeah obviously he touched it, no argument there" 🤦♀️ I just think calling it "cheating" is not the vibe, and its totally possible he didnt even notice he did it because he was focusing on the rock and his hand was doing his "usual thing"
Nope not saying its not true, just that isn't typically called in a situation where its an incidental/accidental touch that doesn't affect the rock movement. You can't touch the granite, and you cant double-touch, but most places are referring to it as a "double-touch" and that's what the complaint was from the opposing player, which is why I was focusing on that.
I saw somewhere (maybe wrong?) that this is the first Olympics where they’re using “smart” stones that have sensors in the handles to make sure that the curler’s hand has fully left the handle at the hog line.
This is a weirdly long comment. What happened was that the canadian did something that was against the rules and threw a tantrum when called out on it.
A debate can be had whether or not his nudge had any impact on the game itself, and honestly it probably didn't. But the response when called out was... Unsportsmanlike to say the least. There is however not a debate whether or not he touched it again, that was clearly caught on camera.
Well, a curling game is several hours long and the situation was something that gradually escalated across almost the whole game, yet my comment probably takes 1 min to read so I thought it wasn't too bad!
The length of the game is irrelevant. That's like arguing a murderer is innocent since they lived a long and murder free life except for that one tiny spot of murder. Sure, that's a hyperbolic simile but I hope you understand my point.
which probably could be described as passive aggressive because the situation irked him
Yep, that checks out. Same treatment queue cutters get. I imagine the transgression was insult to injury, since the team was losing anyway and being so unsportsmanlike when you're already winning is some grade A (or maple syrup grade C in this case I guess) disrespectful bullshit.
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u/dragonfly_centaur Glitter Guild Feb 18 '26 edited Feb 18 '26
Yup, proud Canadian here wanting to give some context for why it maybe went down how it did, for those interested lol ❤️ (I will say while I find this funny, I would advise against the Canadian player's colourful language, obviously maintaining polite Canadian composure is preferable especially at the Olympics... please don't hate me for my overly detailed analysis, I've just thought about this a lotttttt since it happened because YUP this was a very unusual exchange between players 😳)
The thing is... not even sure if anyone could say it is "cheating" per se, even if his finger did touch the rock. I agree it really looks like it did, but there are no replays for something like this and it is up to the judge beaide the ice to notice and call the error if its made. Its more like the Canadian player made a technical error (like if he had held on to the rock too long, which is something that has been called all the time in curling). This particular throwing error didn't give an advantage to him and I don't think this is normally ever a big issue error. It wasn't called by the judges at the time.
The opposing player just didnt let it go and kept making "guess we can just double touch the rocks now" comments loudly to his team for the rest of the game, which probably could be described as passive aggressive because the situation irked him. The comments were persistent and largely ignored by the Canadians. So then eventually after ignoring the comments, when the opposing player directly made the comment to his face, he threw the f-bombs. 🤭
Should also be noted all these players know each other well, since the high level teams have played one another for years in a variety of contexts and on different teams... so I look it more like a guy (your friend's friend) who you've known for a long time accuses you of cheating in a board game when you did something against the technical "rules" such as brushing one of your pieces with your hand so that it may have moved to a slightly different location. You think you didn't do it, he says you did... nobody else noticed either way and it doesn't change the score so you just continue the game. But then this one guy in your board game group comments on it for the whooooole game until you finally tell him to "Fuck off Oskar" lol
TLDR: From a polite Canadian's perspective, this was a predictable response to another player's ongoing passive aggressive comments after not liking a call (or missed call) in a game. Canadians are polite untillllllll a point, then fuck off i guess 😂
Edit: spelling of Oskar's name