Curling drama grows as Britain hit with violation

CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The curling controversy at the Winter Olympics widened Sunday as increased surveillance of matches resulted in the removal of a stone thrown by the British men’s team for the same alleged violation that burned the Canadians two days in a row.

In the ninth end of Britain’s round-robin match against Germany, officials said Scottish curler Bobby Lammie touched a stone after releasing it down the ice. That is called “double-touching,” and it is against the rules.

Britain won the match 9-4.

The controversy surfaced Friday night with an allegation against the Canadian men’s team by its Swedish opponents; a day later, a stone was removed from the Canadian women’s match against Switzerland. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show both Canadian curlers double-touching the rocks, but both teams denied wrongdoing.

Beginning Saturday, World Curling said it would designate two officials to move between the four curling matches during each round but noted it was “not possible” to have umpires stationed at each hog line — where the stones must be released by hand — during every match.

The added attention could raise nerves on the ice. Some curlers said the double-touching infraction had never been called out with this intensity in past competitions and that it can be difficult to tell if someone is guilty of it.

It was not known whether officials were watching some teams more closely than others. World Curling says it does not use video replays for reviewing game play.

Until Sunday, the controversy had been limited to the Canadian curlers, who represent one of the world’s most fervent fan bases.

Olympic curlers had varying opinions on whether umpires — like those in other sports — should begin using video replays to adjudicate disputes or verify calls.

“If they bring that in, I think it probably disrupts the speed of play,” said Johanna Heldin, the alternate for the Swedish women’s team. “We’ve always been a game that tries to play by the rules and have that high sportsmanship level, so hopefully we can figure that back out.”

U.S. women’s curlers had a different view. Tara Peterson said she would “absolutely” support video replay.

“There’s instances where an instant replay would be huge,” she said.

“I feel like there’s a lot of other sports that do it,” said her sister, skip Tabitha Peterson.