After beating Great Britain in Saturday’s final at Milano Cortina, the team’s skip Brad Jacobs defended his squad against Swedish claims that Canadian player Marc Kennedy committed irregularities during the round-robin.
Before Jacobs spoke, Kennedy gave a passionate and tense address, using strong language to defend the integrity of his play after it was questioned in the game against Sweden days earlier. After a week in the spotlight due to controversy, Team Canada capped their Olympic run on Saturday with a 9–6 victory over Great Britain, as Kennedy celebrated the gold medal with his fist raised.
“It means a lot to me to see my teammates with a medal around their necks. I don’t know if people will ever understand what we went through as a team this week, or what I put them through,” he said.
Despite Canada’s triumph, controversy lingered over Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson’s accusations against Kennedy. Kennedy angrily denied the claims, which have shadowed curling throughout the Games. Sweden, who won 8–6, alleged that Canada’s vice-skip illegally touched his stone and gave it a secondary push with his finger after release. He was reported to the referees, and while the play could not be reviewed, an official was stationed at the green line to prevent further infringements.
At the Games, World Curling installed electronic handles on the stones that light up red if players maintain contact past the hog line, the point at which curlers must release the stone. However, because the sensor is in the handle, Sweden claimed that Canadian players were touching the granite itself, which is not equipped with sensors.
Jacobs also appeared defiant on Saturday, not holding back during the post-match press conference. He said, “I’ll guarantee you that only motivated us further to go out and prove to everyone that we’re the best team. Now we’re at the top of the podium, I would say we’re the best team in the world.”
The Canadian later spoke more calmly, emphasising the special place of curling in his country and appealing to the integrity of the sport. “Integrity means a lot to us. We wanted to prove everyone wrong and rise to the top of the podium,” he stated.
Kennedy celebrates Olympic gold with his fist raised.
Mattia Ozbot/GETTY IMAGES
Kennedy, who said after the Swedish accusations that he and his family had received threats on social media, admitted he “let his emotions get the better of him” and insisted that his overreaction had been an attempt to defend his team and his country. “I stood up for my teammates. I’ll never back down from that. We moved on, we moved forward, and we achieved something incredible. A weaker team would have completely fallen apart,” he added.
Jacobs captured his second Olympic gold medal in men’s curling on Saturday, 12 years after his first in Sochi in 2014. He defeated the world number one, Bruce Mouat, the skip of the Great Britain. For Jacobs’ teammates Kennedy and Ben Hebert, this is their second gold medal, following their victory in Vancouver 2010, and a return to form after losing the semifinal at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympics.
Kennedy also won bronze in Beijing 2022 and is Canada’s most decorated Olympic curler. Mouat settled for silver once again, having lost the final to Sweden’s Niklas Edin at Beijing 2022.
News
CLAIRE’S WHITE HAIR WASN’T JUST A SIGN OF AGE… IT MAY HAVE FULFILLED THE PROPHECY FANS FORGOT
Claire’s white hair marks prophecy fulfilled In the finale’s closing moments, Claire’s hair turns completely white after she and Jamie revive, echoing Adawehi’s season 4 prophecy that this transformation would come when she could heal without tools. Earlier in season 8, her hair began whitening after resurrecting a stillborn infant, hinting at the cost of […]
Part 2: THE SION LODGE ESCAPE BLIND SPOT: I Thought My Husband Was Punishing My Marriage for 18 Years… Until a Government Doctor Exposed the Asset Takeover Trap
I betrayed my husband once, and he punished me for eighteen years by sleeping beside me like my skin was filth. But on the day of his retirement checkup, a doctor opened an old file and said one sentence that broke me worse than my sin. “Mrs. Naina… before I speak about your husband’s condition, […]
I WAS STRIPPED OF MY ARCHITECTURAL PORTFOLIO THE DAY MY MOTHER PASSED AWAY… BUT MY ARROGANT BOSS FORGOT THE LETHAL FRAUD HIDDEN IN HER REAL ESTATE DEED
Olivia Henderson learned two things about grief in the first forty-eight hours after her mother died. The first was that sorrow could be strangely practical. It answered phone calls. It nodded at casseroles delivered by neighbors who wore pity like perfume. It stood beside a casket and accepted soft-handed condolences from men in tailored suits […]
I COOKED AN EXTRAVAGANT BREAKFAST FOR THE MAN WHO STRUCK ME AT DAWN… ONLY TO SERVE HIM THE ULTIMATE SURPRISE THIRTY MINUTES BEFORE HIS BOARD MEETING
He hit me hard enough that my lip split against my teeth, simply because I asked where he had been the night before. Early the next morning, I quietly cooked an extravagant Southern breakfast and laid the table with polished silver. “Now that’s a good wife,” he boasted from the head of the table. But […]
The three suspects who directly pushed Maria Eduarda Rodrigues de Freitas into the ravine, leading to her death
AUTOPSY RESULTS MAY ANSWER WHAT THE CAMERAS COULDN’T: WESTON’S FINAL HOURS TAKE A NEW TURN For days, the mystery surrounding James “Weston” Higginbotham’s final hours seemed to rest on the same haunting questions. Did he fall somewhere in the steep terrain outside Kyoto? Did the cold overtake him after he became disoriented? Or did exhaustion […]
I BROKE MY SILENCE AFTER MY SON UNINVITED ME TO THE DINNER I PAID FOR… BUT THE CHILLING TWIST IN MY DESK DRAWER PROVED WHO REALLY CONTROLLED THE FORTUNE
But the third person made me set my teacup down. My granddaughter, Emma, climbed out of the back seat. She was seven, small for her age, with Wesley’s dark hair and my mother’s solemn eyes. Her raincoat was yellow, one sleeve twisted at the cuff, and she clutched the stuffed rabbit I had sewn for […]
End of content
No more pages to load
