The World Curling Federation has announced measures to tighten control of competition at the 2026 Olympic Games in Italy following a complaint by the Swedish men's team. Previously, head coach of the Swedish team Fredrik Lindberg accused the Canadian team of cheating at the 2026 Olympics. On Friday, the meeting of the teams in the group stage of the Olympic tournament ended with a score of 8:6 in favor of the Canadians. According to the Swedish team representative, the Canadian team players repeatedly touched the rock after the throw-in, which is prohibited by law. The referees did not intervene, but video evidence later emerged showing Canadian curler Mark Kennedy touching a rock in play. In Saturday's statement, World Culing noted that the referees did not record any violations during the match and also reiterated that they did not use video replays. At the same time, the international federation decided to increase the number of officials at competitions to control the throws. – World Culing does not currently use video replays to review post-match decisions so decisions made during the match are final. Game officials are posted at the end of each playing field and cannot clearly see any service violations. However, when they notice a problem with the serve, the match official will take position to monitor the serve at three ends. During the observation period, no violations were recorded during Friday night's game. World Culing does not have the ability to arrange for judges to observe all the throwing lines for each throw. However, starting from the afternoon session on Saturday (February 14), two officials will rotate between all four courts and supervise the throws, World Culing said in a statement. The organization also issued a verbal warning “regarding the language used by the Canadian player during the match.” The Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo will end on February 22.
