Curling might seem a slightly more tame event when you compare it to sports like skeleton, ice hockey, and ski jumping, but there was plenty of drama when Canada faced Sweden in the men's curling on Friday night.
Things quickly became heated when Niklas Edin’s Swedish team accused the Canadian competitors of cheating by touching the stone following its release.
The game came ot a halt as Sweden asked Olympic officials to look out for Canada allegedly double-touching the stone, but the Canadians then replied for officials to keep an eye on Sweden, too.
Canadian curler Marc Kennedy was visibly upset over the allegations and asked his Swedish colleague to 'f**k off'. “I haven’t done it once,” Kennedy said. “You can f**k off.”
Oskar Eriksson then 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.”
Canada went on to claim the win 8-6, and although Kennedy appeared to play down the incident, he wasn't going to let the accusations slide completely after the game, as he added: “Oskar was accusing us of cheating. I didn’t like it. I’ve been curling professionally for 25 years," according to The Guardian.
In 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. Should a player make contact with the stone beyond the point where they should have let go - known as the 'hog line' - the handle will flash red.
This was pointed out by Kennedy after the competition: “There are 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.”