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This year's Winter Olympics just got truly bizarre as a Canadian curler accused of cheating is now claiming it was the Swedes who targeted his team as part of a "premeditated" attack.
Marc Kennedy acknowledged he "probably could have handled it better" after launching an expletive-laden outburst toward Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson, who accused him of breaking rules by "double-touching" -- essentially, touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice -- during Canada's 8-6 win in round-robin play late Friday.
However, Kennedy, 44, said he did not -- and has never -- deliberately taken to the ice "with the intention of getting an advantage through cheating."
The footage being shared online seems to show Kennedy did touch the granite stone with his outstretched finger
Asked about the footage, Kennedy said: "Yes, I'm not even going there. I've never even known that to be a concern before. It's never ever come up in conversation."
"And if somebody said to you, 'Hey, do you double-touch all the time?' I honestly, in that split second of a moment, I couldn't even tell you if I do or not," he said.
He added his own theory, suggesting the whole thing might have been "premeditated planning to try to catch us."
So sad to see the video of Canadian Olympian Marc Kennedy who got caught cheating for Team Canada in curling today. He was confronted by the Swedish team and reacted with a disservice to Canada. pic.twitter.com/BYKjVv2xsv
— John Tomkinson (@johnwtomkinson) February 14, 2026
Kennedy received a verbal warning from governing body.
While not pre-tournament favorites (that honor belonged to Great Britain), Canada entered this year's Winter Olympics considered a strong contender for gold. Analytical models, Some of those models had Canada with a 58.7% chance of winning a 4-player Olympic gold.
Gambling websites and Pay Per Head solutions for bookmakers continue to see record breaking numbers for this year's Winter Olympics with another week of action still on tap.
- Tony Caliente, Gambling911.com
