Canadian curler Marc Kennedy has denied cheating after a heated exchange with Sweden at the Winter Olympics, vowing to defend himself like a 'bulldog'. The incident occurred during Canada's 8-6 victory over Sweden on Friday night, when Sweden's Oskar Eriksson accused Kennedy of double-touching the stone.
World Curling confirmed on Saturday that Canada would face no punishment for the alleged rules breach, but warned the team about abusive language and introduced emergency spot checks. Kennedy, speaking after Canada's 9-5 loss to Switzerland, insisted he had never cheated in his career. 'When you get called out, my instinct was to be a little bit of a bulldog,' he said. 'I don't regret defending myself or my teammates in that moment. I just probably regret the language I used.'
The dispute centred on Kennedy's delivery technique, with Sweden claiming he touched the stone itself rather than the electronic handle, which would have triggered a red light. Replays appeared to support Eriksson's claim, but officials did not intervene during the game. Eriksson said they had informed officials, who initially misread the rules.
Kennedy accused Sweden of a premeditated plan to catch teams cheating at the hog line. 'They have come up with a plan here at the Olympics, as far as I know, to catch teams in the act,' he said. Eriksson hit back, saying he had slept 'like a baby' after watching the video and was confident Kennedy had broken the rules.
World Curling confirmed it would not use video replay to change results, but would conduct spot checks and reminded all teams that not using the handle is illegal. Canada was also warned that any repeat of bad language would result in sanctions.
