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The day after the curling scandal in Cortina, in which Canadian Marc Kennedy yelled the F-word at Swede Oskar Eriksson, World Curling issued a verbal warning to the future gold team. The decision states:
“After Friday night’s round, World Curling spoke with Canadian officials and issued a verbal warning regarding language used by a Canadian men’s player during the game. During the meeting, it was made clear to these officials that continued inappropriate conduct under Rule 19 will result in further sanctions.”
Rule 19 of curling states, among other things, that inappropriate behavior, unkempt or offensive language are prohibited.
When Kennedy’s teammate Ben Hebert returned to Canada, he appeared on the “Big Show with Rusic & Rose” podcast on Canadian Sportsnet. There he continued to attack the Swedish team and especially against Oskar Eriksson.
Among other things, Eriksson has been called “a complete idiot,” which is roughly the same expression Hebert used when DN asked him questions in the interview zone immediately after the Sweden game. One might think that a team that won Olympic gold like the Swedes would want to put the scandal behind them, but not Hebert, who continues to take honor and glory from Team Niklas Edin.
The language used is offensive. It is at least as serious that Hebert, in the manner of Donald Trump, denies the facts presented to him and that he is allowed to continue to spread false information without being asked any questions.
“We were on the podium with the gold medal and they (the Swedes) came completely last,” says Hebert.
Sweden was second to last in the regular season, China took last place in the table.
Hebert: “It’s a joke. They (Team Edin) put a camera in the stands at the beginning of the week to bring the home team Italy there too. They did it against Great Britain at the last European Championships, we spoke to the Scots and they weren’t behind what the Swedes did.”
That’s right Team Edin has long pointed out rule violations by players from several countries, but a camera has never been used when placing them in the stands. Niklas Edin made this clear to the Canadians during the Olympic Games. The attention-grabbing photos of Marc Kennedy’s index finger as he appears to touch the stone were taken by SVT photographer Tobias Jonsson, who wanted to use good journalism to explain what the controversy was about.
Hebert says that since the team has been on the decline for the last two or three seasons, the Swedes planned the whole thing in advance to throw Canada off balance and attract attention from the Swedish media.
SVT photographer Tobias Jonsson tells DN that he decided to take the photo in the final stages of the game, in the eighth round, when Canada scored four points and decided the game, and after which the big war of words broke out. So it wasn’t a commissioned work by the Swedish team.
Hebert continues to argue Eriksson found “a gap” in the rules and noted that World Curling had changed the rule around double touch without communicating this.
The question is whether he himself believes that the international association would change the rules without telling what is by far the largest curling country in the world.
Hebert says he hasn’t read the rule book in 20 years and that a custom has developed in Canada of not caring about double touches. That may well be the case, but it must be every player’s duty to know what rules apply at the Olympics.
If, say, Mo Salah went to the World Cup this summer, put the ball a meter from the penalty spot and said he didn’t know the rules, would we believe he was serious?
All this nonsense It could be met with silence if they didn’t now spread across Canada and the rest of the world via social media. Unless the International Curling Federation takes further action, it should at least deny Hebert’s false claims in the interview, which is characterized by the same Big Brother attitude seen in Canadian hockey.
In the end, Hebert says that “Europe hates it when Canada wins” and thinks Europe should show more gratitude for everything Canada means to the sport in terms of sponsorships, finances and interest.
That also sounds like something Trump might have said.
It bears repeating that Sweden won the curling medal league in Cortina with two gold medals ahead of Canada.
Read more:
Curling-gate has rocked Canada – but the cheating didn’t start in Cortina
Johan Esk: Swedish chaos ruined the Olympics – not Canada’s cheating fingers
