Did Canada cheat their way to victory?

Kaitlyn Nielsen| Sports Editor

Curling Stone. / Photo by 'akophotography', licensed by Envato.com.

With the end of the curling competition, Canada has sealed their win even in the face of controversy. The popularity of the sport of curling has increased over the years. This year's winter Olympics opened the eyes of many viewers to the holes in the rules and regulations within the sport. 

The basic foundation of curling relies on competitors to report their own fouls. This Olympics, viewers watched as Sweden’s team made claims regarding the integrity of the Canadian's game play, leading to a fiery conflict. Due to the nature of the game, officials can’t make calls during the competition, but only offer a warning following the completion of the match. 

The real issue lines within the governing body of the curling association. They have tried to create a more reliable system, filled with trained umpires. These changes created issues within competitors, who felt that these umpires weren’t informed enough regarding the rules and would impact gameplay. Overall, the system that is reliant on “call-your-own-fouls” doesn’t seem to be as standard anymore, with competitors and competition becoming more advanced and mainstream. 

So what actually happened during the Winter Olympics that caused such a worldwide scandal for the Canadian team? It’s called double-tapping. This is a type of foul that occurs when a player touches the stone after they have already released it. The foul results in the stone being removed from the play. The individual who was accused of making this play was Marc Kennedy. After releasing the stone, camera footage shows Kennedy touching it with his fingertips. 

Following the allegation made by the Swedish team, there were chosen words exchanged between Kennedy and Sweden. Kennedy did end up receiving a verbal warning from the World Curling Body. However, that was the day following the match. There have been debates regarding the play and whether Kennedy should have called out the play as a foul. 

However, David Shoemaker, one of the committee’s secretary generals, stated that this move was not cheating. He called a comparison to Lebron James taking four steps on the way to the hoop. Stating “I wouldn’t say Lebron James is a cheater”. Following the debate, Kennedy stated that his reaction to the allegation was just him defending his teammates, and they were still able to do something amazing. 

Whether or not the double-tap should’ve been considered a foul and the stone removed from play. The allegations open a larger can of worms for the world of curling. Now that popularity has increased, the governing body can no longer rely on an honor system when it comes to the competition world.