Canada's potty-mouthed Olympic curlers warned about swearing so much
It wasn’t quite the classic soap-in-the-mouth punishment.
However, Marc Kennedy and the Canadian curlers did get a stern warning at the Olympics.
One day after Kennedy’s F-bomb-laced tirade sent shockwaves through the Olympic Games, the World Curling Association intervened with their take on the events.
While they didn’t agree with Sweden’s assessment that Kennedy was cheating by double-touching the rock before the hog line, they did announce some changes.
The World Curling Association said that two officials would observe deliveries, which started with the games today. Typically, the officials are at the end of the sheet and only observe deliveries if there is a violation.
Although Canada escaped unscathed in terms of abiding by the rules on the sheet, they were issued a metaphorical finger-waggle from the Association.
“Following the Friday evening session, World Curling spoke with the Canadian officials to issue a verbal warning regarding the language used by a Canadian menās player during the game,” they wrote in a press release.
“During that meeting, it was made clear to those officials that further inappropriate behaviour, determined by rule R.19, would result in additional sanctions.”
“Rule R.19 states: ‘Improper conduct, foul or offensive language, equipment abuse, or wilful damage on the part of any team member is prohibited. Any violation may result in suspension of the offending person(s) by the curling organisation having jurisdiction.'”
Kennedy told Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson multiple times to “f*** off” after the curler accused him of cheating.
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After the game, he revealed that he spoke to the Swedish team about the incident.
“I have a ton of respect for Oskar Eriksson,” Kennedy said. “He’s one of the best players to ever play. And I just told him, ‘I would never do that to you. I would never accuse you of cheating,'” he said.
Canada was right back in action on Saturday against Switzerland, where they lost their first game of the tournament, 9-5. Their record now drops to 3-1, while Switzerland is the tournament’s only undefeated team.