Canada women’s team skip Rachel Homan bemoaned an ‘insane’ decision after one of her stones was removed from play after she was charged with double touching during a defeat by Switzerland at the Winter Olympics on Saturday.
The incident has further stoked the fires at the Olympic curling competition, coming a day after Sweden’s men’s team accused Canadian curlers of cheating by double touching stones in a heated clash.
In response to Sweden’s claims, World Curling said it would have officials standing by the hog line monitoring for violations during the rest of the Olympics.
In her first delivery of the game against Switzerland, Homan was judged to have touched the stone after release by an official on the sidelines.
She reacted with disbelief, saying ‘absolutely not’, but the stone was removed from play. Canada went on to suffer an 8-7 defeat in an extra end.
‘I don’t understand the call. I’ll never understand it. We’ve never done that,” an irate Homan said after the defeat.
‘It has nothing to do with us. Ump (Umpire) shouldn’t be in our game. There’s no infractions on the women’s side at all. It was absurd.
‘If there is something, you call it out and the ump comes out, watches so it doesn’t happen again. It’s never been called out in the women’s game. It’s just insane.’
Homan added that the umpire could not have seen the violation clearly from the sidelines and should have checked video footage of it.’
‘My hand did not move when I released it,’ she implored.
‘I have no idea what she saw. If she saw something, then look at the video. Go watch it a thousand times. You’re going to see nothing. It’s frustrating. It’s not even a thing.’
Statement from World Curling after Sweden row with Canada
Following the situations arising from the Sweden versus Canada game in men’s session four on Friday (13 February) evening, several issues require clarification.
Use of Video Replay
World Curling does not currently use video replay to re-umpire game decisions. Decisions made during a game are final.
Delivery Violations
Game Umpires are situated at the end of each sheet and physically cannot see every delivery infraction. However, when they are made aware of delivery issues, game umpires are positioned to observe the delivery for three ends. During this period of observation in the Friday evening game, there were no violations recorded.
When delivering a stone, before the hog line players can retouch the handle as many times as they wish. However, touching the handle after the hog line is not allowed and will result in a the stone being removed from play as per Rule R.5 (e) that states: “A stone must be clearly released from the hand before it reaches the hog line at the delivery end. If the player fails to do so, the stone is immediately removed from play by the delivering team.”
During forward motion, touching the granite of the stone is not allowed. This will result in the stone being removed from play.
As per rule R.5 (d) “The curling stone must be delivered using the handle of the stone.” Violation of this rule, will result in the stone being removed from play.
It is not possible for World Curling to have game umpires positioned to observe all hog lines for every stone delivery. However, beginning with the Saturday (14 February) afternoon session, two officials will move between all four sheets and observe deliveries.
Inappropriate Behaviour
Following the Friday evening session, World Curling spoke with the Canadian officials to issue a verbal warning regarding the language used by a Canadian men’s player during the game.
During that meeting it was made clear to those officials that further inappropriate behaviour, determined by rule R.19 would result in additional sanctions.
Rule R.19 states: “Improper conduct, foul or offensive language, equipment abuse, or wilful damage on the part of any team member is prohibited. Any violation may result in suspension of the offending person(s) by the curling organisation having jurisdiction.”
Switzerland’s Silvana Tirinzoni said she did not witness the incident.
‘I don’t know if she did do it. But it’s a decision that the umpire took and we had no choice than to remove that rock. It was an order from the umpire,’ she added.
‘It’s a rule that always existed as far as I know. But it has been a big discussion yesterday. They took a closer look today. Apparently, they saw her touching the granite. I don’t know if that’s true or not.
‘But then they decided to remove the rock. I cannot say anything. I did not see it.’