Canada curler Marc Kennedy said on Saturday he regretted using an expletive during a heated conversation with Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson during a round-robin game at the Winter Olympics, but added that he had nothing to apologize for after being accused of cheating.

Tensions boiled over on Friday when Brad Jacobs’ Canada beat Sweden 8-6, with Niklas Edin’s rink alleging their opponents were double touching the stone during the contest.

After Sweden and Canada asked officials to keep an eye on their opponents’ deliveries early on, there was a heated exchange between the teams’ thirds, Kennedy and Eriksson, toward the end of the game.

Eriksson told Kennedy he would show him a video replay of him touching the stone repeatedly. The Canadian responded with an expletive and was later given a verbal warning by World Curling.

“I probably could have handled it better. But we’re human out there and there’s a lot of emotions. I’m not going to apologize for defending my teammates and standing up for myself,” Kennedy told reporters.

“My whole life I’ve been like that if my integrity has been questioned. I’ve curled my whole life, never once with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating. So when it gets attacked, I get my back up and get a little bit aggressive.

“I could have handled it better. No question. There are young curlers all over Canada who look up to me and my team. I pride myself on making them proud. That’s the part that I regret a little bit. Probably the language — I could have done without that.”

Canadian curler Marc Kennedy angrily comes down the ice

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Curling
Tempers flare in Canada-Sweden men’s curling match

Play Tempers flare in Canada-Sweden men’s curling match video

‘WE’LL MAKE ADJUSTMENTS’

Earlier on Saturday, World Curling said it would have officials monitoring for rule violations during the rest of the competition.

Swedish media on Friday released videos and images of 2010 Olympic champion Kennedy appearing to touch a stone while it was crossing the hog line.

Kennedy said he had not seen a replay of the incident, adding that he and the Canadian team would make adjustments to their delivery if needed.

“I know there are hog line officials now all the time. We’ll make sure it’s not happening and we’ll go from there,” he said.

“I’ve never even known that to be a concern before. It’s never ever come up in conversation.

“And if somebody said, ‘Hey, do you double touch all the time?’ I honestly, in that split second of a moment, couldn’t even tell you if I do or not.”

‘PREMEDITATED AND PLANNED’

Swedish broadcaster SVT said it had captured the footage of Kennedy touching the stone by moving a camera into the stands to film the hog line after Sweden first complained about a violation early in the game.

Canada coach Paul Webster alleged that the incident was “premeditated and planned.”

“We’ve got a lot of great friends at CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), and if I needed something on television because we felt we were wronged, I think I could get it on in about 32 minutes,” he added.

“So they have the support of their national television too.”

Eriksson said he and the Sweden team had made the decision to call out their opponents only after seeing a violation during the game, adding that they had attempted to flag prior incidents in the past to no avail.

Asked if it was premeditated, he said: “No, no, no, no.

“We want to play a fair and square game, follow the rules.

“And if we see something that’s not following the rules, we tell the opponents or the official. This time we did both, and hopefully we get a good reaction out of it.”

Eriksson said Swedish media showed him the video of the incident when he entered the mixed zone after the game.

Canada men's curlingCurling

HOMAN SLAMS OFFICIALS

It’s not just the Canadian men’s team that’s dealing with the controversy. Canada women’s team skip Rachel Homan said it was “insane” that one of her stones was removed from play after she was charged with double touching during a defeat by Switzerland at the Winter Olympics on Saturday.

In her first delivery of the game against Switzerland, Homan was judged to have touched the stone after release by an official on the sidelines. She reacted with disbelief, saying “absolutely not”, but the stone was removed from play. Canada went on to suffer an 8-7 defeat in an extra end.

Video replay on the NBC broadcast appeared to show Homan grazing the granite with her finger upon release.

“My hand did not move when I released it,” Homan said. “I have no idea what she saw. If she saw something, then look at the video. Go watch it a thousand times. You’re going to see nothing. It’s frustrating. It’s not even a thing.

“I don’t understand the call. I’ll never understand it. We’ve never done that,” an irate Homan said after the defeat. “It has nothing to do with us. Ump (Umpire) shouldn’t be in our game. There’s no infractions on the women’s side at all. It was absurd.

“If there is something, you call it out and the ump comes out, watches so it doesn’t happen again. It’s never been called out in the women’s game. It’s just insane.”

Homan added that the umpire could not have seen the violation clearly from the sidelines and should have checked video footage of it. Video replay is not used in World Curling events, and the sport’s governing body said in a statement on Saturday before the game all calls made in the moment are final.

Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni said she did not witness the incident.

“I don’t know if she did do it, but it’s a decision that the umpire took and we had no choice than to remove that rock. It was an order from the umpire,” Tirinzoni added.

“It’s a rule that always existed as far as I know, but it has been a big discussion yesterday. They took a closer look today. Apparently, they saw her touching the granite. I don’t know if that’s true or not… But then they decided to remove the rock. I cannot say anything. I did not see it.”