Curling isn’t normally a sport associated with heated words, but a competitive sport is still a competitive sport, meaning things can ratchet up, particularly in a high-stakes event like the Olympics.

During the ninth end of Canada’s men’s curling round-robin match with Sweden at the 2026 Winter Games, Oskar Eriksson, Team Sweden’s vice-skip, accused Canadian vice-skip Marc Kennedy of cheating.

Kennedy didn’t take the accusation lightly.

(Warning: explicit language)

“You can f*** off,” television microphones picked up Kennedy saying, incredulously. “I haven’t done it once, don’t chirp”

Eriksson then responded: “I’ll show you a video after the game.”

To explain what’s happening here, TV mics had been picking up both teams complaining to officials about the opposing sides’ releases, with Kennedy’s release being a constant thorn in Sweden’s side until Eriksson seemingly couldn’t take it anymore and directly confronted the Canadian about it.

The issue that Sweden has with Kennedy’s release stems from a rule where you’re not allowed to touch a released stone after it passes the hog line, something that X/Twitter sleuths make it seem like he was doing.

Early in the match, the Swedish side tried to make their case known, complaining to an official about the possible infraction.

CBC curling expert John Cullen agreed that it was a good idea for Sweden to at least bring up the tendency that Kennedy has, but unless there was clear and obvious evidence of Kennedy touching the stone after it crossed the line, it would be tough for any discipline to be levied on Canada.

The Twitter sleuthing does look quite convincing, but, in a statement procured by the CBC’s Devin Heroux, officials found no wrongdoing on Canada’s part.

“There were no hogline violations or retouches of the stone,” the statement read.

The Canadians ultimately defeated Sweden 8-6 to improve to 3-0 in round-robin play.

Following the match, there was reaction from both sides. In an interview with public Swedish broadcaster SVT that Redditor “moneypole” translated to English, Kennedy could be heard in the background while Swedish players were being interviewed.

“It’s super sad, of course,” Sweden skip Niklas Edin said of the heated exchange between his team and Canada. “These are incredibly talented athletes, but it gets a bit overshadowed by this.”

Speaking to the CBC after the match, Kennedy congratulated Eriksson and Sweden, but reiterated that he didn’t like being accused of cheating.

“Oskar Eriksson’s a wonderful player and we have a ton of respect for him,” said Kennedy. “He was just accusing us of cheating and doing something we should be doing, which was total horses***. So we didn’t like it.”

Canada next plays against fellow 3-0 squad Switzerland Saturday at 8:05 a.m. EST/5:05 a.m. PST.