Brad Jacobs and the Canadian men’s curling team won gold after staging a dramatic comeback to defeat Bruce Mouat and Team Great Britain on Saturday.

The gold was Canada’s first Olympic curling title since Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris won in mixed doubles in 2018. It also marks the first men’s team gold since Sochi 2014, and, in an interesting twist of fate, the first men’s Olympic title since Jacobs last skipped for Canada at the Games 12 years ago.

The team, consisting of skip Jacobs, vice-skip Marc Kennedy, second Brett Gallant, lead Ben Hebert and alternate Tyler Tardi, played like the best team all tournament long, beating each nation in the event at least once, and dropping just one game.

The gold medal Canada’s curling men won could be considered an even more impressive accomplishment when you consider the controversy that the team was embroiled in, as they proceeded to capture the imagination of just about everyone tuning into the Games.

It became the “double-touching” controversy, where Canadian curlers were accused of cheating by touching the curling stone after its release. Thanks to Kennedy’s expletive-filled shot he took at Sweden, Canada became something like villains to casual fans tuning in.

After seeing Canada win the gold medal, those voices only grew louder.

Of course, as World Curling itself explained, Canada didn’t cheat. And even if it did, the violation of “double touching” is still just a minor infraction and not worthy of getting a team disqualified from the tournament.

However, even with all that explained, it’s tough to get people to change their minds when they’re already made up.

Thankfully for Jacobs and Co., not everyone is as incensed that they took home the gold, with some who are making a point to rub it into the faces of those who believe the Canadians didn’t follow the rules.

No matter what side of the argument you fall on, the fact remains that Jacobs and the Canadian men’s team are Olympic champions — via cheating or not.

One thing is also for certain: this was a great gold-medal game, which many also expressed throughout the tight contest.

With Rachel Homan’s rink also capturing bronze earlier in the day, Canadians from coast-to-coast can feel like they’re on top of the curling world.