Fans accused Canada’s Marc Kennedy of repeating a controversial release gesture during the Olympic curling final as debate erupted despite the gold medal win
Canada’s Marc Kennedy was the one accused of double-touching during the Winter Olympics(Image: Photo by Odd ANDERSEN / AFP via Getty Images)
The Olympic gold medal match in men’s curling was tense long before the final stones were delivered.
By the middle ends, however, attention inside the arena and across social media had drifted away from strategy and toward one familiar Olympic controversy involving Canada’s Marc Kennedy, who walked out of an interview after being shown evidence of cheating.
Viewers quickly began circulating clips online accusing the Canadian veteran of repeating the same “pointing finger” motion near the stone that previously sparked cheating allegations earlier in the tournament. Some posts demanded television producers switch camera angles to monitor his release more closely, while others openly questioned whether officials were ignoring potential violations.
The renewed scrutiny comes just days after Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson publicly accused Kennedy of “double-touching” the granite during a heated round-robin meeting.
In curling, players may adjust the handle but cannot touch the stone after it crosses the hog line; doing so typically results in the rock being removed from play. No penalty was issued at the time, and governing officials later clarified they do not use video replay to retroactively overturn decisions.
Eriksson did not walk back his stance ahead of the final and questioned Kennedy’s reaction during their earlier confrontation.
“You don’t react like that if you know you’re not guilty,” Eriksson said. “I don’t think he slept as well that night as I did. If he now chooses to think he did the right thing, he will have to take responsibility for it.”
Kennedy rejected the accusation and insisted the situation had been manufactured to unsettle his team.
“They have come up with a plan here at the Olympics, as far as I know, to catch teams in the act at the hog line,” he said. “This was planned… it was kind of evident that something was going on, and they were trying to catch us in an act.”
Oskar Eriksson has refused to let the curling scandal pass.(Image: 2026 Getty Images)
On the ice, the game itself remained tight through seven ends before Great Britain moved ahead in the eighth. Canada answered immediately with three points using the hammer, swinging control of the match. A clean final end prevented Britain from forcing extra play and secured a 9-6 victory.
The result delivered Canada its fourth Olympic men’s curling gold medal and seventh overall in the event, while Great Britain settled for silver, its third runner-up finish in the modern era.
Despite the celebration, the earlier controversy lingered, with Eriksson also criticizing what he called a contradiction in Kennedy’s stance.
“He got furious at that person and shouted that he had lost respect for him and thought he had been hung out to dry,” Eriksson said. “He said the same thing then as now, that he had filmed a lot of opponents — but still thought that it was unsportsmanlike if someone filmed him. The double standard in that doesn’t work.”
