The Olympic curling final was interrupted after close-up shots revealed a detail on Marc Kennedy’s hand – Canada’s gold medal status is being reviewed…

Marc Kennedy (left) watches the action before a preliminary round game against Switzerland on Saturday in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. He was accused of double touching the curling stone during a game against Sweden at the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina. (Al Bello/Getty Images)Teilen in sozialen Medien

The controversy over whether some Canadian curlers during the Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina were guilty of “double-touching” the curling stone after it was released has also raised a more important issue. Does it make any difference?

“No. The double touches I saw were accidental contact, namely finger or hand touches on a 40-pound piece of granite,” said Eugene Hritzuk, a Canadian curler from Saskatoon who has been involved in competitive curling and coaching for more than 60 years.

“What can fingers touching a 40-pound piece of granite do? You need the palm of your hand touching the stone to make any difference.”

The controversy surrounding the alleged double touching of the stone first arose when Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson accused Canadian curler Marc Kennedy of breaking the rules during a match at the Olympics on Friday by touching the stone’s granite with his finger after releasing the stone.

Brad Jacobs leads Canada to Olympic victory against defending champions Sweden (2022), with tempers running high. The next day, a referee accused celebrated Canadian skip Rachel Homan of the same offense in Canada’s game against Switzerland. The referee stopped play and the stone was removed from play.

Both Kennedy and Homan have denied any allegations of cheating. Meanwhile, authorities said Sunday that Scottish curler Bobby Lammie touched a rock after releasing it on the ice.

The Canadian men’s and women’s Olympic curling teams came under fire after the Swedish men and Swiss women accused Canada of double-touching the rock last Friday and Saturday. Both Team Rachel Homan and Team Brad Jacobs denied the allegations. Former Olympic curling champion Jennifer Jones explains the cheating allegations and what they mean. “That wouldn’t be beneficial,” said Hritzuk, who has also been involved in research studies on curling mechanics. He explained that the basic principle of rules in any sport is to prevent unfair advantages.

However, he pointed out that the cheating allegations against Canada related to double touch were unfounded because brushing the stone or altering it after it was released would actually cause a disadvantage. Throwing a stone requires keen skills to glide in the correct line and at the correct pace, he said.

Once the stone is sliding on the target line and at the correct speed, any touch releasing it would cause it to deviate from its intended line and speed, Hritzuk explained. “That wouldn’t be beneficial to good execution.”

After the ninth end of a men’s curling game between Canada and Sweden, Swede Oskar Eriksson suggested that the Canadian players had touched the stone a second time after releasing the handle. Canadian vice-curling expert Marc Kennedy responded with a tirade against Eriksson. CBC curling expert John Cullen analyzed the heated exchange and the rules of the sport.Canadian curling commentator John Cullen, host of the CBC podcast “Broomgate: A Curling Scandal,” said most top curlers would confirm that a double touch on the rock has no effect on the rock.

After a profanity-laced scandal, Canadian curler Kennedy says his only regret is the choice of words. Elite curlers train their entire lives to perfect their glide and throw. And when they slide, it’s a movement they’ve done hundreds of thousands of times and practiced until the stroke was as good as it could be, Cullen said.

“The idea of ​​an elite curler letting go of a stone and then trying to correct it with his finger – there’s no way you could benefit from that. On the contrary, it would just make the situation worse.”

The handles are very close to the stone, and there is only five to 7.5 centimeters (two to three inches) of space between the handle and the rest of the stone, Cullen said, adding that this means that the hand sometimes gets caught or is pulled back by the stone’s handle.

“No curler would have ever whistled that at another curler as a violation, because no top curler believes that it actually achieves anything,” he said.

The Canadian women improve their record to 3-3 after back-to-back wins against China and Japan on Day 10. However, Cullen said he is not opposed to the introduction of double-touch rules and that players ultimately need to prevent extreme examples, such as someone pushing the rock after it has been released.

“In some ways you need this rule because you don’t want there to be outliers who take advantage of a gray area and start throwing the ball in a whole new way,” he said. “But should this rule really go against the throwing techniques that Marc, Rachel and Bobby used? No, I don’t think so.”

A violation of the Homan rule (double touch) results in the removal of a stone and thus Canada’s additional defeat against Switzerland.

Rachel Homan lost 7-8 in overtime to Silvana Tirinzoni’s Swiss team after her first stone was disallowed for a double-contact violation. Mike Harris, a Canadian curler and CBC Olympics commentator, said he had never seen a curler cautioned for a double-contact violation.

“I’ve seen someone touch the back of the rock and stuff like that. But nobody’s really worried about it.” He said his team usually takes the view that if someone does that after letting go of the rock, it’s probably not going to be a very good shot.

“If you let go of the stone and then feel like you have to touch it again afterwards, then that’s, well, not a good thing.” Why did Sweden criticize Canada? The real question, Harris said, is what motivated Sweden to criticize Canada. “Why are you bringing this up now? I think a lot of people are asking that question.”

However, Cullen said that while Canada may be in the crosshairs due to its teams’ dominance at world championships, he doesn’t view the double-touching controversy as “all against Canada.”

Olympic Curling Controversy Targets Canada “I think they just felt that Marc Kennedy, in particular, does this type of move a lot, and he happens to play for Canada,” Cullen said.

He said he believed the Swedish team probably would have raised the issue with another country if they felt one of their top players was doing it all the time – and Sweden was 0-2 and playing them in a third game, which was Sweden’s game against Canada.

Cullen, however, wondered why Sweden hadn’t denounced Kennedy earlier for double touches when they knew he had touched the ball twice more often. “You’re only bringing this up at the Olympics. Is there an ulterior motive behind it?” he asked. “If you lose this game against Canada, it will be 0-3, which will probably mean elimination from the tournament. Was that altruistic or did Sweden just want to upset Canada?”