Canada is taking home a gold medal in curling at the Milan Cortina Olympics, a triumphant finish that certainly wasn’t without controversy.
The Canadian men’s curling team beat Britain 9-6 to clinch Olympic gold on Saturday, their first gold in the competition since the 2014 Sochi Games. Canada’s team includes Marc Kennedy, who made headlines earlier in the Olympics for publicly cursing out his opponent during a round-robin match when he was accused of double touching the stone.
Despite viral photos that appeared to show Kennedy using his finger to touch the stone after he released it—a violation of the sport’s double touching rule—the Canadian vice skip denied any wrongdoing.
“I don’t like being accused of cheating after 25 years on tour and four Olympic Games,” Kennedy said afterward. “So I told him where to stick it. Because we’re the wrong team to do that to.”
After Canada won gold, Kennedy’s teammate Brad Jacobs clapped back with a fiery message for anyone criticizing the team for cheating.
“I don’t think we’re a team that needs any more motivation, but when some things went down this week and people were using some pretty outrageous words, like cheating, associating that with our team, I’ll guarantee you that that only motivated us further,” Jacobs said. “... Canada, and curling in Canada, is special to us. It means a lot to us. Integrity means a lot to us. And we wanted to go out there and prove everyone wrong and rise to the top of the podium.
“And I will say for anyone who called us cheaters, for anyone who said negative things about Marc Kennedy, about us, about Canada, about our families, I hope that the image of us standing on top of the podium, embracing one another, smiling ear to ear with our gold medals, is burned into your brain forever.”
“For anyone who called us cheaters, for anyone who said negative things about Marc Kennedy, about our families… I hope that the image of us on top of the podium… smiling from ear to ear is burned into your brain forever.” - Brad Jacobs pic.twitter.com/aDguDMBd7Y
— Rock Channel (@rockchannelcurl) February 22, 2026
For most Olympics fans, it’s probably more likely that the infamous meme of Kennedy touching the stone will outlast the image of the Canadian curlers on the podium. In any case, Canada was able to come out on top in Milan, taking down Norway in the semifinals before besting Britain in the gold medal match.
What Canadian curler—and alleged cheater—Marc Kennedy said after his team’s gold medal win
Kennedy didn’t have quite as an incendiary response as his teammate following Canada’s win but did express how happy he was to have secured the sport’s biggest prize.
“It means the world to me to see my teammates with a medal around their neck,” Kennedy said. “I don’t know if people will ever understand what we went through this week as a team — what I put them through this week as a team.”
Kennedy received a verbal warning for using profane language during his heated incident in Canada’s round-robin match against Sweden, but neither he nor Team Canada received any disciplinary action for their alleged cheating.
World Curling—the sport’s international governing body—has since informed all Olympic curling teams of the “proper release” of the stone, though it seems like the double touching rule in particular could use more clarification moving forward.
“This is a brand new rule that apparently was put in very recently that I think World Curling really does need to do a deep dive on and take a look at,” Jacobs said. “It didn’t seem like they were prepared for what went down. ... It was a little bit of a mess. So hopefully us as players can maybe get a little more involved and help them figure out the best thing moving forward for the sport so that this type of nonsense doesn’t happen again.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Canadian Curler Drops Cocky Message After Winning Gold Amid Cheating Allegations.
