Winter Olympics star blasts curling cheat storm as ‘premeditated plan’ | Other | Sport

Canadian curling star Marc Kennedy claims he was set up by ‘premeditated’ cameras designed to catch him ‘in an act’ of cheating. Kennedy was accused of a double touch by the Swedish team last Friday and received a verbal warning from World Curling for ‘inappropriate language.’

The 44-year-old erupted into a foul‑mouthed tirade at Oskar Eriksson, after the Swedish star accused him of making contact with his stone beyond the hog line. In response, Kennedy pointed to himself in disbelief before shouting: “I haven’t done it once. You can f*** off”, prompting Eriksson to fire back: “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 went on to win the match 8-6.

After the match, Kennedy received a verbal warning from World Curling for using foul language, though he was not formally charged with cheating by the governing body.

Speaking the next day, Kennedy said: “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.”

Then, on Saturday, Canada’s women’s team were accused of the same infringement in the first end of their match against Switzerland. A stunned Rachel Homan protested her innocence, while the men’s team have also denied the accusations made against them.

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Kennedy has now spoken about what he believes was the Olympics’ plan to catch his teams 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 said. “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 setting up cameras to catch them cheating. “I know we’re not the only team that they’ve done that to,” he added. “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 hit back saying they’ve been sounding the alarm about alleged Canadian cheating for seven or eight years. “We’ve been saying this for maybe seven, eight years or something,” Niklas Edin said. “The media crew decided to place the camera on the hog line to see what was happening…”

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There was another incident involving the Canadian team during their match against Switzerland. Pablo Lachat‑Couchepin was seen approaching team coach Glenn Howard, claiming he had spotted another double tap from Canada during the fifth‑end break.

Speaking after his country’s 9-5 win, 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.”