Canadian curler fires back at Sweden after cheating accusations as drama explodes

Canadian curler Marc Kennedy fired back at accusations by Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson that he cheated.

Canada beat Sweden, 8-6, in the Olympic match on Friday, but controversy sparked a heated moment between the two teams.

Eriksson accused Kennedy of breaking the rules by “double-touching” — touching the stone a second time with his finger after releasing it to gain an advantage.

Footage shows Kennedy did appear to touch the stone a second time with his finger.

Brett Gallant, Marc Kennedy, Ben Hebert and Brad Jacobs celebrate after a men’s round robin curling match between Canada and Sweden during day 7 of the 2026 Winter Olympics on February 13, 2026 in Cortina. JOEL MARKLUND/BILDBYRÅN/Shutterstock

“I’m not even going there,” Kennedy said when asked about the footage. “I’ve never even known that to be a concern before. It’s never ever come up in conversation.

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

Then Kennedy pointed the finger the other way toward the Swedes, saying their accusations were “premeditated planning to try to catch us” since the two countries are two of the favorites in the competition.

“They’ve come up with a plan to catch teams in the act,” Kennedy said.

Canada’s Marc Kennedy in action during the men’s curling round robin session against Sweden, at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, Friday, Feb. 13, 2026. AP

Kennedy and Eriksson got into a profanity-laced back-and-forth during Friday’s match when the latter made the accusation.

“I haven’t done it once,” Kennedy responded. “You can f–k off.”

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Eriksson shot back that he’d show him video after the game that shows his double-touch.

“We want to play a fair-and-square game, like you follow the rules,” Eriksson said. “And if we see something that’s not following the rules, we tell the opponents or the official. This time we did both.”