The curling controversy at the Winter Olympics is not what you think

Curling ice The Winter Olympics are often full of screaming, but not like this. Last Friday, in the match that Canada won 8-6, a verbal altercation broke out between the third pitcher from each team. Near the end of the match, after the controversy over the secondary rules had reached its peak, Swede Oscar Eriksson negatively accused Canadian deputy skip Mark Kennedy of cheating. Kennedy quickly declared that he “didn’t care” and twice told Erickson to “fuck off.”

Within hours, almost every major media outlet covered the incident, and it went viral on social media, inspiring dozens of people to suddenly become experts on the 500-year-old Scottish sport. By the end of the weekend, they all had a full opinion on whether Kennedy had touched the curling stone after it was released, in violation of the rules. (If they didn’t have an opinion, they certainly had a meme.) Almost all of them were wrong.

I’m a four-year football player in the Thursday Night Beer League and a multiple-time D-bracket champion at the local Bonspiels. In layman’s terms: I understand the sport and its culture but I’m certainly not an expert on how to play the game at a level where the handles have sensors on them. However, from watching the tape and reading the analysis by other curlers, it seems clear that Kennedy violated the rules by touching the back of the rock after its nose touched the pig’s line. However, it is also possible that this had no effect on the outcome – the violation involves a fraction of an inch, and the hog line is 93 feet from the center of the target on the other side. A light double tap on the rock before the pig line also appears to be fairly common, as there are now video edits purporting to show other teams, including Sweden, doing the same.

So, yes, chair curling experts have a certain point about Kennedy’s behavior on the ice. But they focus on the foul violation.

Curling has thousands of rules and customs, many of which are relatively obscure. Any footballer who pays attention to the finer details will have bought and received many pints in bets made on the current state of regulations for a home ice warmer or snow plow in one fell swoop. But the first rule, which is absolutely non-negotiable, is called the spirit of the window: A true player never tries to distract opponents or prevent them from giving their best, and would rather lose than win unfairly. This is where this match went off the rails.

Curling is an ancient sport with a classic sense of personal honor, and it is always better to lose than for your opponent to think you won unfairly. This is not “named”, there are rules. But unlike bowling, for example, the rules begin and end with rules of polite behavior dating back to the Tudor period.

A prime example of how a simple, unintentional violation of the rules can occur earlier in these Olympics. In a doubles match between the United States and Italy, one team accidentally kicked a stone. The opposing team trusted that the kicker would put the stone back in its place, no judges were called, and there were no cursing or accusations of cheating.

The Sweden-Canada match was completely different. For anyone who wants to delve deeper into the brawl, NBC has uploaded an excellent long-form version of the confrontation to YouTube, which shows the brawl starting to heat up in the sixth end, just after the midpoint of the game, before coming to a head in the ninth end. The full version says. The Canadians go to the judges with vulgar complaints about the Swedes touching a piece of their equipment while the Canadians were preparing to throw. The Swedes go to the judges to complain about the double touch and are rejected.