Believe it or not, it looked as though Olympic curling was going to make it through a day without a huge blowup.
But the controversy that has taken over the sport in Milano Cortina struck again.
All of which stemmed from an initial incident that happened on Friday between Canada and Sweden. The Swedes, particularly third Oskar Eriksson, had a problem with Canadian third Marc Kennedy and how he was releasing the rock. Eriksson claimed he saw Kennedy double-touch the stone past the hog line and went to the official to complain.
The officials watched Kennedy’s release closely afterwards but didn’t see anything wrong, which appeared to make Eriksson even more upset. As a result, Eriksson went at Kennedy during the ninth-end break, and the two had a heated exchange that caught everyone’s attention.
Because of that, World Curling released a statement on Saturday saying it would have two umpires rotate between all four sheets to watch the hog line for releases for the remainder of the Olympics.
Well, that resulted in Canada’s Rachel Homan and Great Britain’s Bobby Lammie each having a stone removed from play. Homan in the first end versus Switzerland, while Lammie’s happened in the ninth end versus Germany.
Both were stunned as they had never been called on it before. Homan was a lot more upset than Lammie, however, given that her rocks were fourth stones and Lammie’s were second stones. Great Britain also had a big lead.
Between the 8:05 a.m. ET and 1:05 p.m. ET draw on Sunday, World Curling held a meeting with national Olympic committees to discuss the rule change.
That led to World Curling releasing another statement shortly, their second announcement within 24 hours, changing the rules once again and essentially reversing their previous decision.
“This change in protocol will see the two umpires who had previously been actively monitoring athlete deliveries remain available in the field of play, but will now only monitor athlete deliveries at the request of the competing teams.
“The umpires, when requested, will monitor deliveries for a minimum of three ends.”
The latest initiative was put in place for the start of the men’s draw Sunday afternoon, when Canada’s Team Brad Jacobs faced China’s Team Xu Xiaoming.
Jacobs picked up a commanding 6-3 win in just nine ends, improving his record to 4-1 on the week, and putting him in a great spot to make the playoffs.
As for this whole controversy, though, it has gone from something people were tuning in for to a complete mess.
This is the biggest stage, and the curlers deserve the right to focus on playing their best to decide an Olympic champion. Yet because of World Curling’s back-and-forth decisions over the last 48 hours, a lot of grey areas in curling have developed that need to be addressed. But they should never have tried to change anything during the middle of this event to begin with.
However, there is some good news from all of this. It seems like all the players simply want to focus on one thing. The pursuit of winning a gold medal.
Women’s results from Sunday, Feb 15. (Full scores and standings)
Draw 6
Korea 7, Japan 5
Denmark 7, Italy 2
Sweden 10, Great Britain 7
U.S. 6, China 5
-
-
Women’s Olympic curling standings, schedule, results
Team Rachel Homan will try to get Canada back on the Olympic podium for the first time since 2014 this month in Italy. Follow all the action with Sportsnet.
Men’s results from Sunday, Feb 15. (Full scores and standings)
Draw 6
U.S. 8, Sweden 5
Great Britain 9, Germany 4
Norway 10, Italy 7
Draw 7
Canada 6, China 3
U.S. 10, Norway 8
Italy 10, Czechia 5
Switzerland 6, Great Britain 5 (EE)
-
-
Men’s Olympic curling standings, schedule, results
Team Brad Jacobs will aim to get Canada back on top of the Olympic podium for men’s curling for the first time since 2014 this month in Italy. Follow all the action with Sportsnet.
Sweden’s Team Hasselborg knows draw weight
Through five games, Sweden’s Team Anna Hasselborg has been outstanding. They’re 5-0 and are the only undefeated team left on the women’s side.
A big reason for their success is due to how well they know the ice, especially on draws.
In the previous four games, as a team, before their match against Great Britain, they shot between 81 and 86 per cent on draws. Which was already impressive, but on Sunday, they dialled it up even more.
On 35 draw attempts, they shot 96 per cent as a team. With such good draw weight, it helped Hasselborg set up back-to-back three-point ends with the hammer leading them to the victory.
So far, they’ve also been the best overall team in terms of shooting percentage, sitting at 85.2 per cent.
Homan will face Hasselborg on Tuesday, in what will be a must-win game for the Canadians.
Women’s standings are a mess, which helps Homan
Other than Hasselborg, who looks well on her way to securing a playoff spot, the women’s standings are quite interesting.
Obviously, the biggest shock right now is Canada’s Homan sitting in eighth place with a 1-3 record and will probably have to win out to get in, but she’s going to get some help the rest of the way.
Outside of Sweden, the U.S. and Switzerland (both teams Homan has lost to) are the only teams with one loss. The rest of the field has two or more defeats already.
The best part for Homan?
A lot of the teams ahead of her in the standings have yet to play each other, meaning guaranteed losses are coming that will help Homan reach a playoff, if she’s able to win out, of course.
We very well could end up with a four-loss team making the playoffs.
Olympic curling continues Monday, starting at 3:05 a.m. ET/ 12:05 a.m. PT when Homan will face China before facing Japan at 1:05 p.m. ET/ 10:05 a.m. PT.
On the men’s side, Jacobs will play against Czechia at 8:05 a.m. ET/ 5:05 a.m. PT.
Each team will play nine round-robin games, and the top four teams will advance to the semifinals.
