A Curling Cheating Scandal Just Rocked the 2026 Winter Olympics — and It Unraveled In Four Days
An F-bomb on Olympic ice, accusations of cheating, a hasty rule change and an even hastier reversal: the 2026 Winter Olympics have delivered one of the wildest scandals in recent memory, and it happened in curling of all places.
Here’s everything you need to know.
It Started With An On-Ice Confrontation
The drama began Friday, Feb. 13, when Canadian curler Marc Kennedy told Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson, “You can f*** off.”
The Swedish team had been repeatedly accusing Kennedy of cheating — touching a stone past the point where he was supposed to let it go. That point is called the “hog line,” one of curling’s most fundamental boundaries. Players slide heavy granite rocks down sheets of ice and must release the rock before reaching the hog line, or the stone is disqualified. Think of it like a foul line in bowling, except the consequences play out in real time.
The Accusation: ‘Double-Touching’
According to the Swedish team, Kennedy wasn’t just releasing the stone a little late. He was allegedly letting go of the stone’s handle — which contains electronic sensors designed to detect violations — and then keeping a finger on the granite itself as it cruised past the hog line. That’s what Swedish curler Niklas Edin described after the match.
“That’s not allowed. It’s pretty clearly stated,” Edin said.
How much difference can a finger on a rock really make?
“You don’t touch 20kg of granite with your fingertips without feeling it, it’s completely impossible,” Edin said. “We, in the sport, know how very few grams of pressure can change the speed when it already has a movement forward. You can move some degree of the angle (too).”
Even the lightest touch can subtly alter a stone’s direction and speed, and in a sport built on precision, that matters.
For a more technical breakdown, NBC Olympics noted that “double-touching in curling isn’t exactly what it sounds like.” A proper delivery begins at the “hack,” with the curler required to release the stone before it reaches the hog line, the green line about 30 feet down the ice. Players can adjust their grip on the handle up until that point, but any contact after crossing the line — whether it’s a late release or touching the stone again — qualifies as a “double-touch.” The handle is fitted with sensors to flag violations, causing the stone to “blink red” if the throw is illegal.
The handles have built-in sensors, but those sensors only track the handle. Edin’s accusation was that Kennedy was bypassing the technology by touching the stone’s granite body instead.
Kennedy Denied It
Kennedy flatly rejected the accusation.
“I’ve curled my whole life, never once with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating,” he told reporters after the match. “So when (my integrity) gets attacked, I get my back up and get a little bit aggressive.”
He acknowledged the outburst could have been handled differently. “I could have handled it better. No question,” Kennedy said — while refusing to apologize to Eriksson.
Curling officials stationed at either end of the sheet said they didn’t see the violations, so they couldn’t call them. That detail only deepened the controversy: if officials couldn’t see it and the handle sensors couldn’t catch it, was there any way to enforce the rule at all?
The Governing Body Scrambled to Respond
By Saturday, things escalated to the sport’s highest level. World Curling, the sport’s official governing body, weighed in Saturday with a clear statement: “During forward motion, touching the granite of the stone is not allowed. This will result in the stone being removed from play.”
The organization didn’t just issue a clarification. It rolled out a brand-new policy of systematically observing players’ throws.
That policy lasted about a day.
The Scandal Spread to Canada’s Women’s Team
The very next day, in a women’s match between Canada and Switzerland, skip Rachel Homan’s first rock was pulled by officials for the same “double touch” violation. Canada won that match 8-6, but the damage to their reputation was already building. Bobby Lammie, on Great Britain’s men’s team, also had a rock disqualified in a match against Germany on Sunday morning.
Homan still felt singled out.
“I don’t understand the call. I’ll never understand it. … It has nothing to do with us,” she said after the match, according to CBC.
Then The Rules Changed — Again
By Sunday evening, the crackdown was scaled back. After meeting with curling officials from different countries, World Curling said umpires would remain available to observe throws but would only do so “at the request of the competing teams.”
The timeline is genuinely remarkable. On Friday, Sweden accused Canada of cheating and got cursed out for it. By Saturday, the sport’s global governing body issued a statement and began systematically watching throws. By Sunday, a Canadian women’s curler had a stone pulled under the new scrutiny. By Sunday evening, the policy was already walked back.
Production of this article included the use of AI. It was reviewed and edited by a team of content specialists.
This story was originally published February 17, 2026 at 2:05 PM.
