Eric Bolte-Imagn Images
There was plenty of drama surrounding the curling events at the 2026 Winter Olympics thanks to the cheating accusations that surfaced during the tournament. We’ve also got some at the Paralympics, as thieves managed to make off with multiple stones right before the competition was slated to get underway.
Curling gets thrust into the international spotlight every four years courtesy of the Winter Olympics, and it ended up being a very hot topic of conversation in February thanks to what unfolded in Milano Cortina.
American fans were treated to Team USA’s first medal in mixed doubles after Cory Thiese and Korey Dropkin (who I got the chance to chat with) took home the silver, which transpired before the men’s and women’s tournaments that spawned a bit of a curling scandal.
The men and women curling for Canada both found themselves dealing with some cheating accusations involving double touches before the hog line, and the guys from Great Britain also got caught up in that controversy thanks to the increased scrutiny directed at that particular violation.
There’s no telling if similar issues will arise at the Paralympics, but the wheelchair competition landed in the headlines before it even began due to a theft that rocked Milano Cortina.
Two curling stones were stolen ahead of the wheelchair curling event at the Paralympics
The 2026 Paralympics mark the debut of the mixed doubles event. It features a male and female athlete from each country competing in an eight-end match that doesn’t feature any sweeping, which makes accuracy from behind the hog line the most vital skill you can possess.
That event kicked off at Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium on Wednesday, and The Athletic reports organizers found themselves dealing with an unexpected issue when they arrived there in the morning and discovered two stones had gone missing overnight.
The stones in question belonged to the yellow set on Sheet A, which was christened for the Paralympics when Italy faced off against South Korea. Officials were able to replace the stolen stones with spare ones from the set that were treated to meet the specs, and they were used by the Koreans in what ended up being a 7-5 loss to the team from the host country.
Police are investigating the theft, but it does not appear they currently have any suspects. Each stone, which is produced by a company in Scotland that sources the granite that’s used from a single island, costs around $960, so while they’re fairly pricey, it’s hard to imagine the people who took them would be able to flip them without arousing some suspicion.