Canada official: Curling scandal like 'traveling in basketball'

MILAN (AP) — The double-touching scandal that plagued his country’s curling team was like “a foot fault in tennis or traveling in basketball,” the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee said on Sunday.

David Shoemaker, who is also the committee’s secretary general, was asked by The Associated Press about the controversy a day after the Canadian men swept aside the cheating allegations to claim gold at the Milan Cortina Games.

He said it “was not cheating.”

“For me it’s like a foot fault in tennis or traveling in basketball,” Shoemaker added. “If LeBron James takes four steps on the way to the hoop, I wouldn't say LeBron James is a cheater.

“I understand the furor that’s erupted on social media, but that part is not fair and hopefully we will see that go away.”

While there are officials to rule on foot faults in tennis and traveling in basketball, curling is mostly self-umpired. So the sport was sent into turmoil during the round-robin phase when Oskar Eriksson of Sweden accused Canada vice skip Marc Kennedy of touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice. Kennedy responded with an outburst full of expletives.

“Marc Kennedy probably regrets his choice of words,” Shoemaker said. “And he’ll find the time and place to express that sentiment beyond what he’s privately shared with his teammates and his family and the rest of us.”

Footage circulating online appeared to show Kennedy touching the granite stone with his outstretched finger after he had already released it.

Kennedy received a verbal warning from governing body World Curling a day after the feisty back-and-forth with the Swedish team, when fingers were pointed and the Canadian player repeatedly swore.

After receiving his gold medal, Kennedy said that he doesn'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.

“I let my emotions get the best of me,” Kennedy added. “I stood up for my teammates. I’ll never back down from that. We moved on, we moved forward and we did something amazing and a weaker team would have fell flat on their face.”