Canada won a gold medal in curling at the Olympics after Marc Kennedy and Brad Jacobs were accused of cheating. Credit where credit is due, it was a defiant victory in the face of hardship.
Unfortunately, the Canadians spoiled the moment with a targeted attack on the haters.
They tried to rub in the win but they told on themselves in doing so. The Olympics cheating scandal is living rent-free in their own heads while everybody else in the world has already moved on. Who cares.
Canada was accused of cheating.
This controversy first came to exist on the second day of competition. Sweden curler Oskar Eriksson accused Kennedy of double-touching the stone upon release.
Kennedy told Eriksonn to “f— off,” which goes against the unwritten rules of the sport. Respect is always at the forefront. His explicit language, caught on a hot mic, sent shockwaves throughout the Olympics. It was the biggest storyline of the Games.
Team Canada offered a lame excuse for the cheating scandal and claimed it was set up by the Swedes. It denies any wrong doing. And to be fair, the video evidence seems to back them up.
Kennedy very clearly double-touched the rock. Jacobs also double-touched a stone during a later match against Czechia. There is no doubt about it. Both Canadian curlers double-touched.
However, they did not appear to do so after the hog line so it was not a violation.
World Curling presented Kennedy with a reprimand for his conduct but the governing body cleared him and Canada of an infraction. In fact, Great Britain was the only team that had to remove a stone at any point during competition at the Olympics because of a double-touch violation. Canada did not.
Marc Kennedy and Brad Jacobs won a gold medal at the Olympics.
The Canadians were able to silence all of the outside noise en route to a gold medal. They might’ve lost a round-robin match against Norway on purpose to avoid Great Britain in the semifinals but that is neither here nor there because they defeated the British in the gold medal match anyway.
Statement made!
Marc Kennedy said after the final match of the tournament that it was a hard week for him and his teammates. I would imagine it was not easy but Team Canada brought the controversy on itself by: 1) double-touching the stone and 2) yelling “F— off!” at the Olympics. So…
“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.”
Brad Jacobs, the skipper for Team Canada, took a more aggressive approach.
“When some things went down this week and people were using some pretty outrageous words like ‘cheating’ associated now with our team,” Jacobs said, “I’ll guarantee you that that only motivated us further.”
He tore into all of the haters which makes him sound salty.
“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.”
Just enjoy the win, my guy! Nobody cares. I will probably forget all about this whole curling cheating scandal in a matter of days. It’s not that serious. Go celebrate with your family. Have a few beers. Relax!