The sport was sent into turmoil during the round-robin phase when Oskar Eriksson of Sweden accused Kennedy, Canada’s vice skip, of touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice.

“I let my emotions get the best of me,” Kennedy said. “I stood up for my teammates. I’ll never back down from that. We moved on, we moved forward and we did something amazing and a weaker team would have fell flat on their face.”

It’s Canada’s first gold in men’s curling since the 2014 Sochi Games, when they also beat Britain in the final with Jacobs as the skip. This is his first Olympics since — he lost in the Canadian Olympic trials for 2018 and 2022.

“For anyone who called us cheaters, for anyone who said negative things about Marc Kennedy, about us, about Canada, about our families,” Jacobs said, “I hope that the image of us standing on top of the podium, embracing one another, smiling ear to ear with our gold medals is burned into your brain forever.”

With its women’s team having won bronze earlier, it was Canada’s seventh gold and 14th medal overall in Olympic curling — tops in both categories.

Kennedy was also on the Canada team that won gold 16 years ago on home ice in Vancouver.

“He’s an animal to be able to accomplish all that he has and to still do that today at 44,” said Tyler Tardi, the team’s alternate who roomed with Kennedy. “He’s been one of the best players in the world for, gosh, 20 years. So he just knows everything, knows how to deal with it all, and hats off to him.”

The British men have still not won Olympic gold since the inaugural Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix.

Mouat was off on the freeze and Canada chipped Britain out of the house for three in the ninth end.

Canada’s team also featured Brett Gallant and Ben Hebert.

Switzerland defeated Norway for bronze on Friday.

Several other accusations of double-touching followed Kennedy’s outburst, and Canada lost its next match against Switzerland before steadying itself to go all the way.

In response, curling’s higher-ups first stationed umpires at the hog line to check for future fouls, but then reverted to the traditional practice of players policing themselves.

“This is a brand new rule that apparently was put in very recently that I think World Curling really does need to do a deep dive on and take a look at,” Jacobs said. “It didn’t seem like they were prepared for what went down. … It was a little bit of a mess.

“So hopefully us as players can maybe get a little more involved and help them figure out the best thing moving forward for the sport so that this type of nonsense doesn’t happen again.”

Top-ranked Canada beat the United States for bronze in the women’s competition earlier Saturday after being upset by Sweden in the semifinals.

Rachel Homan’s team won 10-7 to deny the American women their first medal in the event.

The Canadians had to overcome a 1-3 start to round-robin play.

“I’m really proud of our week and our fight,” Homan said. “We were never giving up right to the end, pulling for each other and when things were hard we just pulled closer together and tried to figure out how to make the next one.”

Canadian Curler Drops Cocky Message After Winning Gold Amid Cheating Allegations

 

The Canadian men’s curling team beat Britain 9-6 to clinch Olympic gold on Saturday, their first gold in the competition since the 2014 Sochi Games. Canada’s team includes Marc Kennedy, who made headlines earlier in the Olympics for publicly cursing out his opponent during a round-robin match when he was accused of double touching the stone.

Despite viral photos that appeared to show Kennedy using his finger to touch the stone after he released it—a violation of the sport’s double touching rule—the Canadian vice skip denied any wrongdoing.

“I don’t like being accused of cheating after 25 years on tour and four Olympic Games,” Kennedy said afterward. “So I told him where to stick it. Because we’re the wrong team to do that to.”

After Canada won gold, Kennedy’s teammate Brad Jacobs clapped back with a fiery message for anyone criticizing the team for cheating.

“I don’t think we’re a team that needs any more motivation, but when some things went down this week and people were using some pretty outrageous words, like cheating, associating that with our team, I’ll guarantee you that that only motivated us further,” Jacobs said. “… Canada, and curling in Canada, is special to us. It means a lot to us. Integrity means a lot to us. And we wanted to go out there and prove everyone wrong and rise to the top of the podium.

“And I will say for anyone who called us cheaters, for anyone who said negative things about Marc Kennedy, about us, about Canada, about our families, I hope that the image of us standing on top of the podium, embracing one another, smiling ear to ear with our gold medals, is burned into your brain forever.”

“For anyone who called us cheaters, for anyone who said negative things about Marc Kennedy, about our families… I hope that the image of us on top of the podium… smiling from ear to ear is burned into your brain forever.” – Brad Jacobs pic.twitter.com/aDguDMBd7Y

— Rock Channel (@rockchannelcurl) February 22, 2026

For most Olympics fans, it’s probably more likely that the infamous meme of Kennedy touching the stone will outlast the image of the Canadian curlers on the podium. In any case, Canada was able to come out on top in Milan, taking down Norway in the semifinals before besting Britain in the gold medal match.

What Canadian curler—and alleged cheater—Marc Kennedy said after his team’s gold medal win

Kennedy didn’t have quite as an incendiary response as his teammate following Canada’s win but did express how happy he was to have secured the sport’s biggest prize.

“It means the world to me to see my teammates with a medal around their neck,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know if people will ever understand what we went through this week as a team — what I put them through this week as a team.”

Kennedy received a verbal warning for using profane language during his heated incident in Canada’s round-robin match against Sweden, but neither he nor Team Canada received any disciplinary action for their alleged cheating.

World Curling—the sport’s international governing body—has since informed all Olympic curling teams of the “proper release” of the stone, though it seems like the double touching rule in particular could use more clarification moving forward.

“This is a brand new rule that apparently was put in very recently that I think World Curling really does need to do a deep dive on and take a look at,” Jacobs said. “It didn’t seem like they were prepared for what went down. … It was a little bit of a mess. So hopefully us as players can maybe get a little more involved and help them figure out the best thing moving forward for the sport so that this type of nonsense doesn’t happen again.”