Canadian curler Marc Kennedy didn't hold back after his Swedish opponent suggested his team had been cheating at the Winter Olympics, to which he promptly responded by telling him to 'f**k off'.
In comparison to some of the more death-defying Winter Olympics sports like ski jumping and the skeleton, curling might seem like a tame event - but apparently that's not always the case, especially when Canada and Sweden come to play.
The two countries came head-to-head in Italy on Friday (February 13) in the men's round-robin curling match, but things quickly became heated when Niklas Edin’s Sweden team alleged the Canadian competitors were cheating by touching the stone following its release.
The game was initially halted as Sweden asked Olympic officials to look out for Canada allegedly double touching the stone, but Canada's team stuck up for themselves and asked the officials to keep an eye on Sweden, too.
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Things then became even more contentious when Kennedy, Canada's third, faced Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson, who told the Canadian that he'd be able to show him a replay of the alleged cheating.
“I haven’t done it once,” Kennedy said. “You can f**k off.”
Eriksson argued: “I’ll show you a video after the game. I’ll show you a video where it’s two metres over the hog line.”
Ultimately, Canada took the win 8-6 in the event, and Kennedy appeared to play down the incident. Per The Guardian, he said: “It’s good. It’s sport. It’s the Olympics. Both teams are trying to win.”
However, he wasn't going to let the accusations slide completely as he added: “Oskar was accusing us of cheating. I didn’t like it. I’ve been curling professionally for 25 years.”
How do officials tell if Olympians are cheating?
When it comes to curling, officials are able to look out for any contact thanks to electronic handles which are installed on the curling stones used at the Olympics.
If a player makes contact with the stone beyond the point where they should have let go - known as the 'hog line' - the handle will flash red.
Kennedy pointed this out while speaking after the competition, saying: “There’s hog line devices on there. I don’t know. And he’s still accusing us of cheating. I didn’t like it. So I told him where to stick it. Because we’re the wrong team to do that to. So I don’t care.”
“He might have been upset that he was losing,” Kennedy continued. “He might be upset that they’re 0-2, grasping for straws. I just told him again. I said I have a ton of respect for him as a player. I’ve never said a bad word about Oskar Eriksson. I don’t really know what he’s trying to get out of it. And yeah, onward. But I’m not going to stand there and take cheating lightly.”
Canada's coach, Paul Webster, stood by his team member as he said Kennedy is 'not a cheater', the National Post reports.
What has Sweden said about their allegations?
Though the Swedish team acknowledged the touch sensor, Eriksson doubled down on his accusations when he claimed Kennedy was touching the stone - not the handle.
Eriksson said: “He asked who we thought was over the hog line and I pointed out who we thought was touching the rock. It was obviously not a red light, but some players are touching the rock according to us. And that’s not allowed ... We told the officials. They came out and they misread the rules, sadly.
“Because they thought double touching any part of the rock is OK. And then they found out that was wrong. You can only touch the electronic part of the handle.”
However, Swedish team leader Fredrik Lindberg said in a statement that the Swedish Olympic Committee 'will not seek an investigation regarding the events during Friday’s game'.
What have officials said?
In response to the back and forth, World Curling released a statement which assured that umpires were positioned at the hog line to monitor the game, adding: “There were no hog line violations or retouches of the stone during the observation.”
Emily Brown