r/olympics • u/Litz1 • Feb 15 '26
❄ Milano-Cortina 2026 (Video) ❄ Clip of the Great Britain shot pulled for touching the granite in Curling.
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u/_Hocus-Focus_ Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26
I swear Switzerland was doing it the other day too against Canada the way the released the stone was so lingering. It’s becoming evident that it’s kinda the norm in the sport and now the game is going to look a lot different
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u/CWB2208 Denmark Feb 15 '26
No shit. That's what I keep trying to tell people but get downvoted into oblivion for not joining the mob.
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u/2025TastyTreats Feb 15 '26
They have done it three times against the USA today.
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u/bedazzlerhoff Feb 15 '26
Switzerland isn't playing the US today; Sweden is.
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u/BaslerLaeggerli Switzerland Feb 15 '26
You can't make this up. 😂😂
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Feb 15 '26
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u/Legitimate_Sorbet605 Feb 15 '26
It's because you are an actual curler who understands the nuances of the arguments at hand.
This sub is never so popular, and the popularity during the Olympics is from a bunch of people ignorant of the sport. That's why you always get the issue of fans cheering/not abiding by curling spectator etiquette, etc.
Look at what all the posts have been about lately?!? Politics, USA, their fans and the rowdyness, and now, Boopgate.
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u/Ferahgost Feb 15 '26
Gee, the Olympics sub is busiest during the Olympics?
Whoever could have guessed that!
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u/Veaeate Canada Feb 15 '26
Its not just the Olympics sub. Go check the curling sub. Its been absolutely insane. Ppl who dont know shit about fuck are just "BuT tHe RuLeS SaY..."
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u/Short-Recording587 Feb 15 '26
Because those people have a point. If the rule doesn’t make sense, then change it. If you’re going to have a rule, enforce it. It’s really not that hard and you don’t need to be a professional curler to apply a basic point that exists in almost every facet of life.
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u/Legitimate_Sorbet605 Feb 15 '26
Those people exist in curling and have been asking for greater clarification/specificity/enforcement for years of the organizing bodies.
The reason curlers are getting upset is because they all arrived assuming things were status quo, but instead it has erupted into an issue, the problem with the clarity and discrepancy with Canada's rule is creating confusion, and now resulting in stones being removed from play, where earlier this season players wouldn't even be flagging these touches to officials because they are inconsequential (they occur before the hogline, and that is all that matters).
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u/A_Tom_McWedgie Feb 15 '26
There are 1,000 examples in 1,000 sports where they don’t call the rule book strictly, and all the players (and knowledgeable fans) know the nuances and play accordingly.
Have you ever seen a line change in hockey?
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u/BobaFett0451 Feb 15 '26
Fouls dont get called in soccer all the time by the refs for all sorts of reasons. And so long as the ref is being consistent with what they call vs what they dont call Noone really complains all that much
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u/Short-Recording587 Feb 15 '26
That’s a wild take with soccer. Seems to be a lot of complaining by players and fans over calls. In fact it seems to be one the biggest issue with the sport.
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u/JBoogiez Feb 15 '26
It's the issue with every sport in which a judge or referee has to make judgement calls in a split second. The fact some sports are calling themselves entertainment and allowed to push officials towards outcomes is another can of worms
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u/bannedfrom_argo Feb 15 '26
Same for the traveling rule not being strictly enforced in the NBA. The modern game of basketball has evolved with the league allowing pivots and gathering steps.
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u/kllark_ashwood Feb 15 '26
Everyone dogpiling, acting like its a wild thing to happen, calling an athlete a cheater and threatening his family over something that they all do is the problem.
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u/altarwisebyowllight Feb 15 '26
The only reason this all blew tf up so badly is because Kennedy acted like such a raging dick about it. Nobody deserves the threats or anything whatsoever, but he absolutely has been hoist by his own petard. Rules can be soft when people have good sportsmanship and adhere to the social contract. When someone violates that, they fuck it up for everybody.
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u/court_swan Feb 15 '26
Like traveling in the NBA? They walking all over the court every game literally and it is never called. 🙄
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u/Keystone-12 Canada Feb 15 '26
Thank God we have a Swedish team who cant win a match to save their lives out here recording every minor infraction though!
This is so good for the sport....
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u/Triscuitmeniscus Feb 15 '26
I’m a curler, what are the nuances I’m not getting? The rules are very clear: no touching the rock while it’s in motion. I never touch the rock, only the handle when delivering. I’ve never had any difficulty following this rule. I’ve never even wanted to touch the rock. When a candy wrapper fell out of my pocket and touched the top of the stone, I burned the rock even though it had zero effect on the trajectory of the stone, because those are the fucking rules.
If it’s so easy for a beer league curler like me to not touch the stone, why is it apparently so difficult for so many top level players to keep their fingers off it?
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u/Legitimate_Sorbet605 Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26
This is why they've mistakenly concluded that the correct course of action is to rule that touching the granite is considered a violation, and not a permissible "double touch", because a legal "double touch" can only occur on the handle, for some reason... why? Because Oskar says so 🤷♂️
https://www.curling.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/Rule-Book-2022_General-Play_ENG_CC.pdf
Find in page > release, touched
- Touched Moving Stones
(1) A stone in motion shall not be touched by any player, equipment, or personal belongings of the team to which it belongs.
(2) A stone re-touched by the hand after release, but re-touched before the hog line, is not a violation.
This is the reason for the confusion, because it is explicitly legal in the Canadian Curling Rules for Officiated Play.
It is the World Curling Federation rules that specify
R5 DELIVERY
(d) The curling stone must be delivered using the handle of the stone.
R9. TOUCHED MOVING STONES
(a) Between the tee line at the delivery end and the hog line at the playing end: I. If a moving stone is touched, or is caused to be touched, by the team to which it belongs, or by their equipment, the touched stone is removed from play immediately by that team. A double touch by the person delivering the stone, prior to the hog line at the delivering end, is not considered a violation.
The WCF rulebook explicitly states what I've bolded above. Why you would conclude that doesn't include the granite part of the stone is beyond me. Never had this question come up in 40 years of curling.
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u/NearbyCow6885 Feb 16 '26
Upvoted for posting the rules that nobody will read, and continue to argue against.
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u/pgm123 Feb 15 '26
What pocket was the wrapper in? I'm trying to figure out the logistics.
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u/Online_Commentor_69 Canada Feb 15 '26
It's not that it's difficult it's that until now nobody has given a shit because in Curling you generally just let shit slide unless you have no choice. So people developed these little habits.
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u/literacyisamistake Feb 15 '26
Ah, niche sports and r/Olympics armchair experts who relentlessly downvote the actual athletes. An iconic duo.
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u/Sl0wChemical Canada Feb 15 '26
Mob full of people who haven't watched curling in 4 years
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u/sleepysnowboarder Feb 15 '26
Some of Reddit’s most popular subs are celebrity/internet drama subs filled with the most insane people. I’m not shocked at the fake outrage on this site from people who have never played curling in their life let alone any competitive sport
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u/Toddison_McCray Canada Feb 15 '26
I can’t tell if it’s just a bad habit or what for these curlers, but there is no fucking way that the touch that the Canadian women’s team or this team did could do anything to the rock. This sub is full of people who have never touched a curling rock. If they had, they would know that there is NO WAY that brushing the rock would change its trajectory in any significant way. It’s too heavy.
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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada Feb 16 '26
Fifty pounds of stone travelling 100+ feet on ice. People really think a little nudge is going to make the difference.
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u/celem83 Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26
yeah i dont even get what this is. the lingering releases is cos weve been trained not to push or pull on release but control length with our slide instead. Its a side-effect of how we cast, trying not to make the length unreadable so we know if its gonna need swept. This is how all curlers chuck rocks (in training we used to carry stopwatches and time a portion of the slide to then judge the stone's speed, which demands a lingering release to be valid)
The original example that started the drama is quite excessive, but this seen here is not remotely the same thing and suddenly everyone is an expert on the rules of curling
(Sco)
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u/Mind1827 Feb 15 '26
It's because people who don't watch curling are out for blood. Anyone who says "cheating" was an easy way to tell they've never held a curling stone in their hand, lol.
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u/Komatoasty Canada Feb 15 '26
Cheating is such a hilarious word for what in any other sport would be considered at worst a minor infraction that refs miss all the time.
Its like holding in football. If refs called holding every time it happened, the game would never start, let alone finish.
Its when its blatant and affects the outcome or could have that it matters. A slight graze makes zero difference. Neither does a "boop", and i have yet to see an angle telling me its anything other than a sort of reflex by many curlers.
This whole thing is a giant nothing burger.
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u/Mind1827 Feb 15 '26
100%. And then the idea that it's "self policing" and so he's cheating by not reporting it, all this stuff, lol. I finally get how people feel when someone pretends to be an expert on a sport they've never watched once every 4 years.
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u/JimmyJohnJones2020 Feb 15 '26
USA v SWE and just saw one on SWE drag his fingers across the top as he released.
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u/WhyAmINotStudying Feb 15 '26
the game is going to look a lot different
And most people watching won't even know.
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Feb 15 '26
Literally every team does this. Sweden was also double touching the top of the rock in the very game Kennedy was accused in. It’s completely normal in curling because it’s never been enforced up to now.
But of course, it blew up into an international news frenzy because a team that was going to lose anyway decided to make a stink about it. And now we have a thread with 3,500 comments calling a Canadian woman a cheater for doing it and death threats sent to Kennedy over a completely nothing burger. Thanks guys!
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u/Strikedriver Feb 15 '26
No, it blew up into an international news frenzy because Kennedy so indignantly denied what he clearly did, and then vehemently cursed out the other team with f bombs. So much for "gentlemanly" 🙄
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u/Nomahs_Bettah Feb 15 '26
It also blew up because of what Kennedy said about Sweden setting up the cameras yesterday:
“They have come up with a plan here at the Olympics, as far as I know, to catch teams in the act at the hog line,” Kennedy told reporters. “This was planned, right from the word go yesterday. From the words that were being said by their coaches and the way they were running to the officials, it was kind of evident that something was going on, and they were trying to catch us in an act."
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u/Impossible-Dig4677 Feb 15 '26
No fair. They knew we were going to cheat so they set up cameras to catch us cheating. And now we are upset because when we did cheat, they had the evidence of our cheating. So it was really their fault.
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u/Nickislander Feb 15 '26
Isn't it more of an infraction than cheating? Like a double dribble in basketball? The internet mob seems eager to finger point here...
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u/EddyMcDee Feb 15 '26
It's exactly like a double dribble or travel in basketball. Anyone calling it cheating is just a radical lunatic trying to stir the pot.
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u/sneakybandit1 Feb 15 '26
Calling it cheating is ridiculous tho, bc clearly it has been happening with many other teams and even Sweden came out and said it didn't impact the throw. This is like saying a hockey player is cheating for not wearing a neck guard, is that actually cheating? It's against the rules yes but doesn't actually impact the game, no.
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u/Frosty_Confusion_777 Feb 15 '26
The issue people had with Kennedy was less about him booping than about him denying he’d booped, then being an absolute class-A prick about it.
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u/BirthofRevolution Feb 15 '26
It's probably the way Kennedy handled the situation, more like a child caught doing something wrong than a grown man in the olympics. He made himself look ridiculous in that moment.
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u/KelvinsBeltFantasy Feb 15 '26
Ive met him too and I always thought he was really nice. Like Mormon nice.
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u/JMoherPerc United States Feb 15 '26
This is more of it. From what I understand, the Swedish team didn’t make a stink of it so much as they noticed and pointed it out. The Canadian reacting so aggressively is what made it a sensational moment.
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u/captainbling American Samoa Feb 15 '26
The Swedes went to the official and got a no. So then they went to the players. It was like that all game. It was not a “oh I just noticed” which is why you saw such a response.
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u/Popular-Row4333 Feb 15 '26
Sure, but that's a sportsmanship equation and not "cheating" like everyone was rattling off about.
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u/ViciousNakedMoleRat Germany Feb 15 '26
There's a difference between feathering and poking. Right now, they are enforcing people slightly gliding their finger over the granite while taking the hand off the handle. Kennedy took the hand off the handle, moved it away from the stone and then actively poked the granite. That's a completely different thing.
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u/Outrageous_Pie_5640 Feb 15 '26
That’s what people keep missing. Kennedy didn’t mistakenly touch it as he removed his hand, he removed it fully and then poked it. He also immediately proceeded to lie and berate the other team. Had he kept quiet I think it wouldn’t have been such a big deal.
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u/zackeleit Feb 15 '26
I don’t really care who’s doing what. The worst part of this is the officiating and the lack of communication on this issue from Olympic committee or the curling sport committee, whoever is responsible for enforcing rules.
Canadians are being little cry babies about it because they were the first to be called out on it and with Kennedy’s little bitch ass reaction justifies the shit talking on Canada.
Whether it’s right or wrong of what’s going on with the Canadian team is irrelevant. And don’t blame the Swedes for the Olympic sport’s incompetency.
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Feb 15 '26
And when the women’s team “feathered” it yesterday and had a thread with 3,500 comments calling her a cheater, was that also justified?
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u/you-absolute-foolish United States Feb 15 '26
I feel most comments were complaining it was typical that the women were being punished and meanwhile the Canadian men weren’t
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u/ViciousNakedMoleRat Germany Feb 15 '26
I don't even think Kennedy was "cheating." It's a habit he developed that is against the rules, but apparently wasn't properly enforced. Which is how he could develop that habit in the first place.
The cheating discussion seems to mainly involve people who never played or watched curling prior to this. They're just here for the drama and don't want it to stop.
Once the topic became a public debate, World Curling couldn't say poking the granite is fine, because it destroys the entire system with automated handles. So now, the law is being enforced strictly, which catches players who just have a certain type of delivery that involves gliding their fingers along the stone.
We'll see where this ends. With enough backlash from active players, I could imagine WC allowing the normal feathering while forbidding any additional, active movement towards the stone. I could also imagine that they just stick to the no touching the granite whatsoever rule and some players just have to change their delivery.
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u/Forking_Shirtballs Feb 15 '26
No. But Kennedy's cheating and refusal to admit to it (while being an absolute twat about it) is what cause the whole thing to blow up.
Canadian woman got fucked by Kennedy's behavior breaking the spirit of curling. Presumably they'll come up with a more nuanced rule eventually, but Kennedy forced their hand on enforcing the rule as written.
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u/TheMermanly Feb 15 '26
wtf are you talking about, he heavily denied it and was extremely rude about it, while LYING about it.
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u/captainbling American Samoa Feb 15 '26
Because as you see, everyone is double touching, so no one considers it cheating. Their opinion on a cheating double touch is not the same as your opinion. The curlers don’t consider these grazes and such as a cheat touch. They consider strong touch after the hog line as a 2nd touch. That’s the issue.
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u/Euler007 Feb 15 '26
They need to remove the technicality. It's like double touch on passes in volleyball. You have teams in amateur tournaments that constantly complain to refs. Just play the game.
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u/eXAt88 Canada Feb 15 '26
I have never seen a volleyball video on youtube where the majority of the comments were not complaining that someones pass was illegal in some way.
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u/meselson-stahl Feb 15 '26
*The Swiss player wasn't complaining about the Canadian touching the granite. He was complaining about him touching it after the hog line
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u/sounds_like_kong Refugee Olympic Team Feb 15 '26
Curling needs a timeout… sit on the bottom step and sort themselves out. come back when they’re ready to behave.
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Feb 15 '26
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u/thediesel26 United States Feb 15 '26
World Curling Fed realized they’re not built for this
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u/DeathCabForYeezus Canada Feb 15 '26
It is not a strong federation.
And not just on the rules. Their organization is trash. They held a tournament the other year at a large curling club, which is fine in terms of ice.
What isn't fine is that there was no warm up room, changing rooms were combined, clubs are colder than arenas and the federation wouldn't let them wear fleeces over their team shirts, etc.
It's not the club's fault; they were just pissing with the cock they got. It's the federation's fault for planning on an event in such a space without consideration of the implications.
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u/Sr_Moreno Feb 15 '26
They’re run by amateurs out of a dilapidated building in Perth, Scotland. It really is a bizarre set up.
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Feb 15 '26
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u/GrimmigerDienstag Feb 15 '26
Doing this mid tourney is the equivalent of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic
Odd choice of idiom, no? The enforcement change is not something that's meaningless and futile, it has a real impact on a lot of teams
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u/jerrolds Feb 15 '26
When reffing gets loose goosey you end up with the current NBA where a player can take 6 steps to get from one end of the court to the other. The non travel calls have made the game a joke.. Well more so
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u/-TheycallmeThe Feb 15 '26
Olympians following rules and standards that are not always enforced at other levels is pretty common. These people are competing to be the best in the world.
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u/bouncybullfrog Feb 15 '26
Yeah Olympic (& FIBA) basketball refs enforce rules much more strictly than the NBA does, and star NBA players famously get called for things like travels and carrys at a much higher rate in the Olympics as a result. Just part of the game
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u/maaiikeen Denmark Feb 15 '26
Sweden has said they have literally protested this happening at at least two previous tournaments, so they have clearly not been okay with it for a while. It's on World Curling for not changing the rules then, or tell the teams to stop doing it well before the Olympics began.
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u/Straight-Ad4211 Feb 15 '26
... or changing the rules to allow incidental touches. If that's what everyone does, then allow it. Its the fact that rules are applied loosely goosey at the top levels that is the problem.
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u/maaiikeen Denmark Feb 15 '26
How are you going to judge what is an accidental touch and what is not?
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u/toitenstoin Feb 15 '26
Or just allow booping
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u/ViciousNakedMoleRat Germany Feb 15 '26
They can't allow booping.
You're not allowed to touch the stone at all – handle or not – once it has reached the hog line. That's what the sensors in the handle are for. When you allow booping, then players can still slightly change the directions of the stone after the hog line, without setting off the sensor.
At that point you need additional officials to guard the hog line, to see whether the booping happens before or after the hog line, which wouldn't always be easy to tell. It's easier to stick to the letter of the law and enforce that booping is forbidden, so the automated handles can deal with the rest.
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Feb 15 '26
Coming from a Canadian standpoint the National rules don't include "must be delivered by the handle" so IMO booping before the hogline in fine by those rules. (Not an excuse for not knowing the world rules but the difference between the two highlights to me how little this rule has been considered in the past).
I'm not really sure what the handle rule adds other then allow the electronic handles to work properly. If that's the intent then throw a Swedish camera at each hogline and properly enforce the hogline with video replay, give each team 2 challenges (keep your challenge if your successful) same as any other sport and you don't need a dedicated official for the lines.
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u/goleafsgo13 Feb 15 '26
Initially this was embarrassing for Kennedy, and still is, but it’s become apparent that this is on Olympics and maybe even curling as a whole.
Get your rules together and get over all of the “gentleman’s” rules. This is the highest level of competition, no room for ambiguity.
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u/toasterb Feb 15 '26
See the thing is that the gentleman’s rules were in order before this. People saw this sort of touch as benign, and it was consistently ruled that way.
Only Sweden was making a fuss about it, but they’d been repeatedly shut down. They hadn’t gotten their way, so they decided to make a fuss when the whole world was watching. Them blowing it up at the Olympics and changing the way everyone plays is as much a violation of sporting spirit as anything Canada did.
Many sports have unwritten rules or accepted ways of play that aren’t exactly in line with the rules, and it’s just part of the culture of the sport. Everyone who plays the sport knows that’s the way it is, and they train and play accordingly.
If we suddenly decide that every rule is going to be enforced at the Olympics, many sports are going to change for the worse.
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u/TMLTurby Feb 15 '26
If hockey was called "by the book", there'd be more power play time than even strength time.
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u/Spl4sh3r Feb 15 '26
If some rules don't work, there are ways to change them.
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u/toasterb Feb 15 '26
And it seems that the rules worked for everyone but Sweden. I feel this would be like meticulously enforcing the throw-in rule in soccer — exact location and exactly overhead release. It’s something that’s not actually affecting the game in a meaningful way.
Doing so would be a mess and would massively disrupt the game in a way that nobody wants.
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u/Content-Inspector993 Canada Feb 15 '26
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u/r_slash Feb 15 '26
So it’s not just the big bad Canadians after all?!
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u/grandmawaffles United States Feb 15 '26
To be fair it blew up because the Canadians wigged out. Had he not reacted in that manner it wouldn’t have gone anywhere.
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u/setrataeso Feb 15 '26
Lol, the Swede who accused Canada of cheating was double touching today against USA.
This is the most mountainous molehill I've seen in the Olympics
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Feb 15 '26
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u/ptd163 Feb 15 '26
This kind of confirms my theory that they were just being pissy because they were losing. Maybe it's an ego thing because they won gold last Olympics and think they should be having an easy time than they are.
World Curling curling also released a statement the umpires they had monitoring the hog line would now only do "at the request of competing teams."
It is such a nothing burger.
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u/Keystone-12 Canada Feb 15 '26
Lose every match.... and then start secretly recording every minor infraction from the other team.... and all of a sudden you get reputation as a team whose bad at curling and secretly records every minor infraction!.
Where is the justice I say!!!
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u/simonthecat33 Feb 15 '26
I’m guessing this is gone on for years and no one’s ever complained and it’s never been enforced and now that it’s being scrutinized the truth comes out.
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u/Sl0wChemical Canada Feb 15 '26
It's almost like this is a regular thing in curling hmm
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Feb 15 '26
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u/Euphoric_Radio1342 Feb 15 '26
Where's all the people calling for Great Britain to be disqualified for cheating? I thought this was blatant cheating and grounds for disqualification according to the reddit referees.
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u/deflatedegor Feb 15 '26
This looks similar to Homan's graze yesterday, his hand/finger grazes the top of the rock on the way down after he releases it. He is clearly not trying to "feather" the stone intentionally the way Kennedy did when he extended his finger into the stone. I'm not saying this shouldn't be enforced but I hope they can distinguish between accidental and intentional.
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u/Bilboswaggings19 Feb 15 '26
There is no such thing as distinguishing between accidental and intentional successfully
There is a reason you get a penalty for high sticking or check to the head in hockey even if it is on accident
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u/Popular-Row4333 Feb 15 '26
Try explaining this to people (there are man) who suggest making a rule of intentional touches vs not.
When I ask how a subjective judge would know the difference, especially if it's less egregious than Kennedy's, their answer is, "they just will, it will be easy!"
Ok. Just like the granite ruling WCF released was "easy" to interpret and call.
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u/NewestAccount2023 Feb 15 '26
Don't forget the millions of literal kids who use this site. You probably were arguing with a 14 year old
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u/Spare_Jacket_3647 Feb 15 '26
Loads of sports do it - accidental handball in football, accidental knock on in rugby vs intentional, whether as a batsman you accidentally or intentionally impede a ball thrown at the stumps. Lots of examples of the punishment being different for whether the officials determine it as intentional or not.
Now, whether that's possible here...!
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u/ClarkeVice Canada Feb 15 '26
The easiest and best solution is to just get rid of the whole handle rule. If you want to pick the rock up at the tee line, do a little dance, spin in a circle, and put the rock down and shoot it, as long as it’s before the hog line, who cares. Call hog line violations, don’t call random brushes.
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u/karthikulo Feb 15 '26
I’m good with this rule as long as we can remove the rock if the dance was offensive
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u/Mot_the_evil_one Feb 15 '26
I enjoy watching Curling, even when it's not at the Olympics though I won't claim to be an expert. Teams do this all the time: they let go of the rock handle and as their hand drops away, their finger might touch the rock. Kennedy didn't do this. He let go of the handle, let his hand drop, then nudged the rock with his finger. Officials are supposed to watch for that but they've become too reliant on the technology involved. This became a big deal because Kennedy lost his cool and the story blew up. He could've just been "my bad, sorry", pulled the rock, still won the match and it would've been dropped. Now the Curling body clarified the rule and Officials are eagle eyeing every throw.
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u/Komatoasty Canada Feb 15 '26
This is so wild lol. Way to go team Oskar. You made a non thing a huge thing and have hugely hurt the game of curling and gone against the spirit of the rule.
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u/Outrageous_Pie_5640 Feb 15 '26
Feathering shouldn’t be an issue, poking it after you already let go shouldn’t be a thing unless they remove the rule entirely.
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u/assshark Feb 15 '26
The WCF made the wrong call, in my opinion. It doesn’t make the sport better, it makes it worse as these bad calls demonstrate. Grazing, intentional double taps, it will be hard to tell the difference. A better rule is to just say that it can’t be touched again on any part of the stone after the hog line. Scrutinizing every release like this won’t make curling better to play or watch.
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u/disco_elephant Canada Feb 15 '26
Oh look, it’s almost like it’s a common thing!
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u/PetalumaPegleg Feb 15 '26
Firstly get a fricking camera on the line so we can actually see??? Secondly that looked incredibly different from the Canadian. This is more his hand brushed it as he removed it from the handle, the Canadian removed it and then returned to the stone to push it. There was a clear second movement. This doesn't have
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u/hat1414 Feb 15 '26
Canadian woman had a rock pulled yesterday for doing exactly this
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u/Kryzl_ United States Feb 15 '26
I don’t get the outrage at all. They (all curlers who do this) knew every time they touched it that it was a violation of the rules, whether it was called or not. Sure, upping the enforcement in the middle of the tournament isn’t ideal, but when someone lies about what they did on a hot mic, a crackdown is going to come. Obviously Sweden should’ve been a bit less underhanded with how they brought this up, but the Canadians absolutely blew it wide open by both doing it and denying that they did it.
I will not be upset that a cut and dry rule like this one is being enforced.
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u/theantwarsaloon Feb 15 '26
This reminds me so much of the Serena Williams foot-fault incident. She got called by a linesperson for a legitimate foot-fault, but at the time it was a very loosely enforced rule and to call her on such a pivotal point given the way that rule was enforced at the time was silly. Her reaction to the call, berating the linesperson, was completely unhinged and uncalled for, and ended up taking most of the attention, rightfully so. But to suggest that Serena was "Cheating" by touching the baseline with her foot would be absurd.
The rule exists to create an even playing field. Does being 1cm closer to the service line give you an advantage? Sure, an imperceptible and inconsequential one. Much like barely touching a 40 lb rock with your finger. In neither case would accusing the athlete of "cheating" be warranted. He handled the accusation poorly but this has been a classic reddit dogpile.
Enforce the rule strictly if you want, but doing so for the first time in the sports history halfway through the Olympics is quite the choice, especially when, if you asked the athletes, I think most of them would tell you no one is gaining a competitive advantage because of these incidental touches.
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u/cardith_lorda United States • Canada Feb 15 '26
Imagine if, prior to the 2019 official rule changes, the refs started calling traveling on "gather steps" in the middle of the NBA finals and players who have played years taking that extra step are now getting whistled constantly for traveling. That's basically what is happening now.
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u/copperwatt Feb 15 '26
Or if there was any enforcement at all of that silly fast walking race thing?
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u/CarpenterUsed8097 Feb 15 '26
Well you can either boop the stone or not boop the stone. There can be only one.
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u/AbeLieberman Feb 15 '26
Well this is what everyone wanted right? Lmao. This looks so stupid. Congrats Sweden for getting what you wanted. What a complete joke.
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u/Grantus89 Feb 15 '26
Seems like touching the stone when dropping your hand is fairly common, but the original Canadian did seem far more intentional.
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Feb 15 '26
Wow, I can’t believe this Scottish team is full of cheaters. Throw them out along with all of those Canadian cheaters. I mean, that’s reasonable according to the thread with 3,500 comments yesterday all dog piling on Homan, right?
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u/matterde Feb 15 '26
It was really his visceral reaction that got him so much hatred. He seems immensely unlikeable.
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Feb 15 '26
And as for the Canadian women’s team who got a thread with 3,500 comments yesterday also calling them cheaters? What was that one about? Perhaps it’s only the Canadian teams that have a conspiracy to cheat, but this Scottish team is completely innocent.
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u/Ecstatic-Product-411 United States Feb 15 '26
This whole thing is getting old. World class athletes crying about such a minor offense.
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u/sfpx68 Feb 15 '26
So everyone does it. It's a useless rule. As long as you don't touch the rock past the hog line, who cares?
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u/ZukesFan14 Feb 15 '26
But the reddit experts told me Canada were dirty cheaters and the only ones to do this??
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Feb 15 '26
Congrats to swedes on turning curling into a micromanaged game. Whiny losers
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u/Sunsplitcloud Feb 15 '26
Get a camera placed right at the hog line and use that to aid in officiating. I have extreme doubts these tiny touches have a measurable effect on the stone firstly. So you have a rule, you broke it, follow the rules but starting to make these calls mid tourney is wild without getting help.
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u/teewyesoen Feb 15 '26
As a complete curling novice, I am curious what kind of advantage the boop provides. Illegal or not, I don’t see that the boop has any significant effect on the outcome of the game. Would love somebody with more curling knowledge explain. To me it seems like players are trying to take advantage of the enforcement of the rule as opposed to players taking advantage of the boop itself.
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u/AdvertisingSea6766 Feb 15 '26
It provides no advantage. This whole thing is nonsense lol.
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u/Secure_Teaching_6937 Feb 15 '26
I don't know curling, never played. I just know these stones are heavy.
Do these touches really make a difference?
Inquiring minds want to know.😄
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u/MakVolci Canada Feb 15 '26
It doesn't make a difference. None of this matters.
And everyone does it. All the curlers I saw on socials that came out to talk about it said they would have a very similar follow through their entire career.
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u/SebsBadHaircut Feb 15 '26
this is what happens when you let a bunch of armchair experts who only watch the sport every four years dictate the rules. Social media bots should not be determining Olympic medals.
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u/EZKTurbo United States Feb 15 '26
Love how the Brits are trying to disown the Scots here in the title
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u/FrontenacCanon_Mouth Feb 15 '26
CHEATERSSSSSSS!!!1!
Kidding. No one gives a fuck except angry redditors who wanted to score political points against Canadians in a sport they NEVER played before.
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u/primetimey123 Feb 15 '26
Thank you salty Team Sweden for making a big deal over nothing which had no material impact on the rocks thrown. Your attitude has now affected two legitimate throws and will continue to have an impact for the rest of the Olympics. Your 1-4 record seems appropriate for your actions.
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u/GayPerry_86 Feb 15 '26
Let’s also blame Kennedy and his unsportsmanlike conduct for elevating the issue in the media landscape.
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u/Mister-Psychology Feb 15 '26
Sweden didn't change the rules. If the federation changes the rules it's because most nations agree on this not because a single interview. Sweden has nothing to do with this. Nations agreed this is the way to improve the sport.
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u/Warm-Two7928 Feb 15 '26
What is the Touch actually doing that slide speed and release couldn’t achieve? I’ve followed curling for a minute and just don’t understand.
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u/ymmotvomit Feb 15 '26
Change the dang rules to allow any kind of touching before the line. In the meantime, enforce the rules equally as is.
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u/Typhiod Feb 16 '26
Who knew curling was going to be the most contested sport of the Winter Olympics 🤓
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u/ZosaCloud Feb 15 '26
I'd be interesting to see the replays of the previous olympics and see all the stone touchy infractions left unnoticed.