Canadian curler Marc Kennedy has once again been accused of cheating at the Winter Olympics following Canada’s match on Saturday.On Friday (February 13), 44-year-old curler Kennedy, who has previously won both gold and bronze medals at the Winter Olympics, became embroiled in a war of words with Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson in the closing stages of Canada’s 8–6 win over the Scandinavian nation.Sweden claimed that Kennedy had double-touched the stone, while images from TV appeared to show that this was the case on several occasions.The Swedish team then asked officials to closely monitor the match, with Canada also lodging a similar request.Players must release their grip on the handle before the thick green line on the ice – formerly the hog line.

The sport’s international governing body, World Curling, was forced to release a statement, having already introduced electronic handles that flash red if a player continues to make contact beyond the hog line during matches.Kennedy’s throw did, in fact, show green rather than red, but his opponents didn’t share that view and suggested that he gave his throw an extra push with his finger.The statement read: “Following the situations arising from the Sweden versus Canada game in men’s session four on Friday (13 February) evening, several issues require clarification.Game Umpires are situated at the end of each sheet and physically cannot see every delivery infraction. However, when they are made aware of delivery issues, game umpires are positioned to observe the delivery for three ends.”During this period of observation in the Friday evening game, there were no violations recorded.”statement also stated that World Curling had issued a verbal warning regarding the use of inappropriate language during the game.