Canadian curling star Marc Kennedy has found himself at the centre of a cheating storm at the Winter Olympics, and he has now hit out at Sweden in a fresh swipe
Curling star Marc Kennedy claims Canada were targeted by ‘premeditated’ cameras intended to catch them ‘in an act’ of cheating at the Winter Olympics. Last Friday, Kennedy was accused of a double touch by the Swedish team and received a verbal warning from World Curling for ‘inappropriate language.’
The 44-year-old launched into a profanity-laden outburst at Oskar Eriksson, after the Swedish player accused him of touching his stone beyond the hog line. In response, a shocked Kennedy retorted: “I haven’t done it once. You can f*** off”, leading Eriksson to reply: “I’ll show you a video after the game. I’ll show you a video where it’s two metres over the hog line.”
Canada ultimately triumphed in the match with an 8-6 victory. Following the game, Kennedy was given a verbal warning from World Curling for his use of foul language, although he was not officially charged with cheating by the governing body.
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Reflecting on the incident the next day, Kennedy admitted: “I probably could have handled it better. But we’re human out there and there’s a lot of emotion. I’m not going to apologise for defending my team-mates and standing up for myself. I’ve curled my whole life, never once with the intention of gaining an advantage through cheating.”
In a further twist, Canada’s women’s team were accused of the same violation in the first end of their match against Switzerland on Saturday. A bewildered Rachel Homan insisted on her innocence, whilst the men’s team also refuted the allegations levelled against them.
Kennedy has now voiced his thoughts on what he perceives as Sweden’s strategy to catch Canada out. “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,” he stated.
“This was planned… it was kind of evident that something was going on, and they were trying to catch us in an act.”
Kennedy and coach Paul Webster accused Sweden of installing cameras to catch them cheating. “I know we’re not the only team that they’ve done that to,” he continued.
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“So I think this was, I don’t know what the word is for that, but like a premeditated plan to try to catch us.”
Sweden have also responded, claiming they’ve been raising concerns about alleged Canadian cheating for seven or eight years. “We’ve been saying this for maybe seven, eight years or something,” Niklas Edin commented.
“The media crew decided to place the camera on the hog line to see what was happening..”
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Another incident involving the Canadian team occurred during their match against Switzerland. Pablo Lachat-Couchepin was seen approaching team coach Glenn Howard, alleging he had noticed another double tap from Canada during the fifth-end break.
Following his country’s 9-5 victory, he said: “Well, everyone talked about it yesterday about the double, potential double touching, and I think, I assume I saw one when the referee was right next to me. We received an email, saying, ‘OK, we’re going to monitor it,’ and it’s nothing personally against Canada, because for me personally, it does nothing; they can do whatever they want, it doesn’t change the direction of the stone.
“But when you have a referee on the ice and the referee is here, and he is looking at it, then he should see it. This is what I was a bit annoyed about. I said to the chief umpire, if they send an email they [Canada] just have to follow the rules and follow what is said.
“It’s nothing personal against Marc Kennedy, he’s a fantastic player, a very fair-play guy and I really admire him. I was a fan when I was a kid, it’s nothing against him. It’s just when you receive an email when you have to comply to the rules, then you have to follow it and this is why.”
