Fans who have watched curling at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games have been debating a controversy surrounding Canada's Marc Kennedy, who has been accused of double-touching his stones.
"Everywhere you go, someone has something to say about curling. As a curler, a curling fan, and somebody who's lived and breathed curling my whole life, I got to tell you, this is nothing but good things for curling. No publicity is bad publicity. It's one of those things that the Olympics heightens everything and makes everything in the spotlight," veteran Saskatchewan curler Kirk Muyres said on The SportsCage.
"All the times over the years, you have disagreements with other players on the ice, it gets heated. Then after the game you go have a beer, it's forgotten, and you move on. When this happens here, it gets heightened so much that the whole world's eyes are on it. But if this happened at the Highland Curling Club in Regina, it had been forgotten about the next day, but that's certainly not the case right now, and it's been fun to watch."
The incident in question happened when Sweden's Oskar Eriksson accused Kennedy of double-touching his curling stone on Friday, February 13. Canada ended up winning that match 8-6.
"I think what Marc was doing there, curlers have been doing that for 30 years. From my standpoint, I didn't think what Marc was doing was against the rules at all," Muyres explained.
"I don't think any curler really does that. I always thought the theory was you could touch anything you want before the hog line. Apparently, you can't touch the granite ever. I'm guilty of it. I'm sure almost all curlers are guilty of having your hand brush across it like that. So it was one of those things, I think all the curlers learned that was the rule."
Then Rachel Homan was accused by an umpire of double touching a stone against Switzerland as Canada lost 8-7 on Saturday, February 14.
The World Curling Federation elaborated on the double-touching rule: "During forward motion, touching the granite of the stone is not allowed. This will result in the stone being removed from play."
Initially, as a compromise, the World Curling Federation announced it would install umpires to watch the games, but later modified the idea with a statement:
"Following a meeting with representatives of the competing National Olympic Committees, an update in the stone monitoring protocol has been confirmed, beginning with the evening session on Sunday, February 15,” the WCF said in a statement.
"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."
Muyres shared his opinion on the umpires with Homan and subsequent attempts by the World Curling Federation to rectify the situation.
"I think the curlers learned about it at the Olympics. Then I think the publicity of it all made the world, the federations, and the officials say, 'We've got to do something.' That's what caused the whole outbreak to watch the hog line," Muyres detailed.
"They ended up pulling a rock on Rachel, and they ended up pulling the rock on the Scottish second as well. All the curlers were going, 'I don't even know what I did.' It's been a crazy experience, but I think they got it under control now. The pressure and the heightened spotlight at the Olympics were really what caused this whole outbreak."
Both Canada's men's and women's curling teams are still playing. However, Canada's mixed doubles team didn't qualify for the Olympic playoffs.
"I think it was a product of the ice change for the Canadian team, it caught them off guard a little bit. It's unfortunate because the pressure of the Olympics makes the players do interesting things, I don't think we've ever seen that happen to that team. They were the best team in Canada for a lot of years," Muyres said.
"Every time they went and played, they were a force. It didn't quite pan out for them on the wrong side of the engine. The ice wasn't really cooperating with them, which is weird because they scratched the rocks apparently, and then it got straighter, which just seems crazy. A plethora of bad luck almost for them."
Muyres is an experienced mixed doubles curler, having won the Canadian mixed doubles championship in 2018, 2019 bronze, and 2024 silver. He also won bronze at the mixed doubles World Championship in 2018. As for the Brier, Muyres won a bronze medal in 2015 with team Steve Laycock and 2021 with team Matt Dunstone.
