On paper, the Olympic Games are about bringing the best of the best athletes from around the world together to compete for glory.
But with all that pressure and adrenaline in one place, the Olympics are always bound to have some controversy.
Milano Cortina 2026 has been no different, so here’s a recap of some of the drama that’s happened over the last two weeks.
Canadian curlers accused of ‘double touching’
Canadian curlers on both the men’s and women’s faced allegations of “double touching” the curling stone after it was released, which led to a profanity-laced spat on the ice that generated international headlines.
On Feb. 13, Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson accused Canadian curler Marc Kennedy of breaking the rules by touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice.
Kennedy was furious, telling the Swede to “f–k off.” When Eriksson said he’d pull up video evidence later, Kennedy said, “I don’t give a shit.”
The curling confrontation launched dozens of memes, many featuring some creative photoshopping of Kennedy and his curling rock.
Though Kennedy apologized for his behaviour, the double-touching allegation dogged him through these Games.
The Swiss team also accused Canada of the same thing as skip Yannick Schwaller defeated Canada. The women’s team also wasn’t able to escape similar allegations after an umpire accused acclaimed Canadian skip Rachel Homan of the same infraction in Canada’s match against Switzerland.
The allegations didn’t stop the Canadians from reaching the podium, though. The women’s team won a hard-fought bronze medal game against the U.S. while the men’s team captured gold in a tightly-contested game against Great Britain.
Athlete’s tearful confession
(Alexander Hassenstein/Getty Images)
A post-race interview took an unexpected turn when Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid started talking about his personal life instead of the sport.
“Six months ago I met the love of my life. The world’s most beautiful, sweetest person. And three months ago I made the biggest mistake of my life and cheated on her,” Laegreid said in the emotional interview after winning bronze in the men’s Olympic biathlon competition.
He said he wanted to tell the world in the hopes she would see what she means to him.
The stunning confession did not go over well with critics, who said it took the focus away from teammate Johan-Olav Botn, who won gold in the event.
Laegreid later said he regretted making the private issue public, and apologized to his teammate — and his ex-girlfriend, who reportedly was unmoved by the display of remorse.
The great Olympic condom shortage
When they weren’t chasing medals, athletes were apparently getting busy in other ways.
The Olympic villages reportedly ran out of free condoms — 10,000 to be exact — that were ordered to give out to the nearly 2,800 athletes competing at the Milano-Cortina Games.
That supply ran out after just three days, and wasn’t restocked in time for Valentine’s Day, some reports suggested.
The International Olympic Committee ended up fielding reporter questions at a regular news briefing about the great condom shortage of Milano Cortina 2026 after it became such a hot topic.
IOC spokesperson Mark Adams couldn’t answer whether prophylactics would be restocked in time for Valentine’s Day, but did point out that shortage indicated “Valentine’s Day is in full swing in the village.”
Penis enlargement rumours
Norwegian Marius Lindvik, seen here during the men’s large hill individual, was among those involved in a scandal over tampering with ski jump suits. The International Ski and Snowboard Federation moved swiftly to quash a ‘wild rumour’ of ski jumpers turning to penis enlargement to gain a competitive edge. (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Maybe the strangest controversy of Milano Cortina started before the Games even began.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) said on Feb. 5 it would be on the lookout for any evidence male ski jumpers were artificially enlarging their penises in a bid to manipulate one of the sport’s rules.
The comment came following a report in Germany’s Bild that said the newspaper had discovered insider talk of the practice being used to alter athletes’ ski jump suit measurement point, thereby securing a larger, performance enhancing suit for the duration of the season.
The sport’s international governing body moved swiftly to dismiss the allegation as a “wild rumour.” International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) said there has “never been any indication, let alone evidence” that the practice was being employed.
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