British curlers join Canada in Olympic curling controversy
The controversy in Olympic curling expanded on Sunday as Team Great Britain’s men’s team was hit with the same violation that hurt the Canadians two days in a row.
Britain was taking on Germany in round-robin play when officials said Scottish curler Bobby Lammie touched a stone after releasing it down the ice. Britain had a stone removed due to the "double-touching," but still ended up with a 9-4 win.
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The issue first sparked Friday night when the Swedish men’s team accused Canada of "double-touching." A stone was then removed in the Canadian women’s matchup against Switzerland. Videos circulating around social media appeared to show both Canadian curlers committing the penalties. But both teams denied wrongdoing.
World Curling said beginning Saturday it would designate two officials to move between the four curling matches during each round but noted it was "not possible" to have umpires stationed at each hog line – the line where stones must be released by hand.
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On Sunday, World Curling said two umpires who previously were actively monitoring deliveries will now only monitor athletes’ deliveries at the request of the competing teams.
Sweden’s Johanna Heldin, an alternate on the women’s team, worried about the pace of play being disrupted with the extra surveillance.
"If they bring that in, I think it probably disrupts the speed of play," said Johanna Heldin, the alternate for the Swedish women's team. "We’ve always been a game that tries to play by the rules and have that high sportsmanship level, so hopefully we can figure that back out."
American Tara Peterson expressed support for more replay.
"There’s instances where an instant replay would be huge," she said.
Until Sunday, the allegations had been limited to Canadian curlers. But now, British curlers have also been engulfed in the controversy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.