Controversy has erupted in the curling at the Winter Olympics, with Great Britain dragged into the explosive fallout following cheating accusations against the Canadian team.

On Friday, Canada’s men’s side were accused by Sweden of breaking the rules by repeatedly double-touching the curling stone after release, leading to swear words being exchanged on the ice.

After Canada denied the claims – the team’s third, Marc Kennedy, responded by furiously insisting: “I haven’t done it once. You can f*** off” – footage of Kennedy clearing touching the stone after release went viral.

open image in gallery

The drama escalated over the weekend when Canada’s women’s team were penalised for the same infringement in the first end of their match against Switzerland, as stunned skip Rachel Homan protested her innocence.

Then, amid increased surveillance from the umpires, Team GB’s Bobby Lammie was also flagged for a double touch in the penultimate end of their 9-4 win over Germany on Sunday.

World champions Great Britain play Canada, a renowned curling heavyweight, in a crunch match on Tuesday as the round-robin reaches its business end, with this controversy still very much in the spotlight in Cortina.

What is a double touch and what are the rules?

Following the controversy during the Canada-Sweden match, World Curling issued a reminder to the competing teams, clarifying the rules of “proper release” when delivering the stone.

World Curling said: “When delivering a stone, before the hog line players can retouch the handle as many times as they wish. However, touching the handle after the hog line is not allowed and will result in the stone being removed from play.

“During forward motion, touching the granite of the stone is not allowed. This will result in the stone being removed from play. Violation of this rule, will result in the stone being removed from play.”

open image in gallery

Canada’s men’s team firmly denied the accusation of cheating, even as the footage of Kennedy touching the stone with a lingering finger on the hog line after release went viral on social media.

“If somebody said to you, ‘Hey, do you double-touch all the time?’ I honestly, in that split second of a moment, I couldn’t even tell you if I do or not,” Kennedy said.

Per the rules, giving the granite of the stone a deliberate prod after its release to correct its course would be cheating – but the fact you can retouch the handle before the hog line means there is some nuance.

Canada’s women’s team said they had been swept up in the accusations, following the heated exchange involving the men’s team on Friday and the online storm it created.

Homan said: “I think the word cheating came out of nowhere. It has nothing to do with cheating. There’s no chance that Canadians would ever intentionally cheat.”

“It obviously was like a heated moment between two players that blew it up. We had nothing to do with that,” said Canada’s second Emma Miskew. “So we felt like we were brought into a situation that we had no part in.”

Increased officiating — then a climbdown

World Curling does not have a VAR-style video replay system to re-umpire game decisions, while decisions made during a game are final and cannot be overturned.

After the controversy, World Curling did release a statement informing teams that, while it was “not possible” to have game umpires stationed at each hog line, two officials would move between all four sheets and observe some deliveries.

It resulted in uproar, however, with athletes and teams furious at how their deliveries were being overly scrutinised, at a level never before seen at a major international tournament.

open image in gallery

That likely explains why Canada’s women’s team and Great Britain’s men were so quickly flagged following Friday’s controversy. It was also unclear if officials were watching some nations more closely than others.

So, World Curling reversed its decision to increase officiating following a meeting with the competing national organisations. Instead, teams could request that an umpire observes the other team, for a minimum of three ends.

Were Sweden spying? And what happens next?

One of the mysteries of the whole saga is how Sweden were so convinced that Canada were guilty of a “double touch”. During the heated exchange between the teams, Oskar Eriksson also told his Canadian opponents: “I’ll show you the video after.”

The video appearing to show a clear double-touch by Kennedy then circulated on social media, with it emerging from Swedish public broadcaster SVT, leading Kennedy to claim the whole controversy was “premeditated” by the Sweden team.

open image in gallery

“They’ve come up with a plan to catch teams in the act,” Kennedy said, which adds another layer. Were Sweden secretly filming their opponents?

After beating Sweden 8-6 on Friday, Canada lost to Switzerland 9-5 in their only game on Saturday before rebounding with a 6-3 victory over China and a 8-2 thrashing of Czech Republic

On Tuesday, Canada will play Great Britain in a match that could determine which nation goes through to the semi-finals and keeps their medal hopes alive, after world champions Team GB suffered a shock defeat to Norway.

Bruce Mouat’s side have now lost three matches and they will likely have to beat Canada. Meanwhile, this fierce fury on ice is not cooling down.