The Curling Controversy at the Winter Olympics Isn't What You Think

The curling ice astatine the Winter Olympics is often afloat of shouting—but not similar this. Last Friday, successful a lucifer that Canada won 8-6, a verbal altercation broke retired betwixt the 3rd throwers from each team. Near the extremity of the match, aft a statement implicit insignificant rules reached its crescendo, Sweden's Oskar Eriksson passively aggressively accused Canadian vice-skip Marc Kennedy of cheating. Kennedy promptly declared that helium “didn’t springiness a shit,” doubly telling Eriksson to “fuck off.”

Within hours, the dustup had been covered by astir each large quality outlet and blown up connected societal media, inspiring scores of radical to abruptly go experts connected a 500-year-old Scottish sport. By the extremity of the weekend, they each had a fully-formed sentiment connected whether oregon not Kennedy touched the curling chromatic aft releasing it, successful usurpation of the rules. (If they didn’t person an opinion, they decidedly had a meme.) Nearly each of them were wrong.

I americium a four-year nine curler successful a Thursday nighttime brew league and multiple-time D-bracket champion of section bonspiels. In layman’s terms: I recognize the athletics and its culture, but americium surely not an adept connected however the crippled is played astatine the level wherever the handles person sensors. However, from watching the tape and speechmaking analysis by different curlers, it seems wide Kennedy violated the rules by touching the backmost of the stone aft the chemoreceptor had touched the hog line. However, it’s besides apt that this had nary interaction connected the result—the usurpation involves a fraction of an inch, and the hog enactment is 93 feet from the halfway of the people connected the different side. Light double-tapping of the stone earlier the hogline besides seems to beryllium fairly common, arsenic determination are present video edits purporting to amusement different teams, including Sweden, doing the aforesaid thing.

So, yes, the armchair curling experts person a constituent astir Kennedy’s behaviour connected the ice. But they’re focusing connected the incorrect infraction.

Curling has thousands of rules and customs, galore of them comparatively obscure. Any nine curler who cares astir the minutia volition person some bought and received plentifulness of pints successful bets made implicit the existent presumption of regulations connected warming the crystal successful the house oregon single-stroke snowplow sweeping. But the archetypal rule, and 1 that’s ne'er up for debate, is called the tone of curling: A existent curler ne'er attempts to distract opponents, nor to forestall them from playing their best, and would similar to suffer alternatively than to triumph unfairly. This is wherever this lucifer went disconnected the rails.

Curling is an past athletics with a classical consciousness of idiosyncratic honor, and it’s ever amended to suffer than person your hostile judge you won unfairly. This is not 'Nam, and determination are rules. But unlike, say, bowling, the rules commencement and extremity with a ruffled-silk codification of gentlemanly behaviour carried down from the Tudor period.

There’s a premier illustration of however a insignificant and inadvertent rules usurpation typically plays retired from earlier successful these Olympic Games. In a doubles lucifer betwixt the US and Italy, 1 squad accidentally kicked their stone. The opposing squad trusted the kicker to enactment the chromatic backmost wherever it belonged—judges weren’t called in, and determination was nary cursing oregon accusations of cheating.

The Sweden-Canada lucifer was precise different. For anyone wanting to excavation successful a small deeper connected the altercation, NBC has uploaded an fantabulous long-cut mentation of the showdown connected YouTube, which shows the fracas opening to vigor up successful the sixth end, conscionable past the midpoint of the game, earlier peaking successful the ninth end. The afloat mentation is telling. The Canadians spell to the judges with ticky-tacky complaints astir the Swedes touching a portion of their instrumentality portion the Canadians were preparing to throw. The Swedes spell to the judges to kick astir the double-touch and are rebuffed.