World Curling have sent every team competing at the Winter Olympics a stern email following the controversial match between Canada and Sweden.
It's safe to say that curling has been a major hit amongst sports fans tuning in to watch the 2026 Winter Olympic Games currently taking place across Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy.
Despite the fact that Team GB's Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds narrowly missed out on a medal in the mixed doubles event, they are both taking place in the men's and women's events.
But the biggest drama to come out of curling at the 2026 Winter Olympics didn't involve Team GB, as tensions reached a boiling point after Sweden accused opponents Canada of cheating during their match.
Advert
Following the incident, World Curling released a public statement addressing the claims, and they've now been forced to send an email to all teams clarifying the rules.
Throughout the round robin match between Canada and Sweden, which ended in an 8-6 win to the North American team, Sweden claimed that their opponents were touching the stone after release.
In a particularly fiery instance, Canada's Marc Kennedy told Sweden's Oskar Eriksson to 'f*** off after he being accused of cheating during the match.
In a statement released the following day, World Curling confirmed that Canada had not breached the rules but warned that action could be taken against them if 'inappropriate behaviour' like swearing was to continue.
And now, the curling governing body has ensured that every team competing in Italy are acutely aware of the rules relating to the incident during Canada v Sweden by echoing the official rules for the Games in an email.
It read: "Dear teams, we would like to clarify what is allowed as a proper release of a curling stone:
"A double touch of the stone handle before the hog line at the delivery end is allowed.
"A re-touch of the stone handle after the hog line at the delivery end is not allowed and detected by the new handles.
"A stone must be delivered by using the handle of the stone. Touching the granite at any time during the forward motion is not allowed and considered a touched moving stone which results in the stone being removed from play."
"For any remaining sessions of the Olympic Games, we will have umpires observing the delivery. Any violation of rule R5 (d) will be called and the stone will need removed from play with no further warning."
In their public statement, World Curling also added that starting on Saturday afternoon, there would be two officials that would move between all four sheets to observe deliveries going forward.
Ben McCrum