OLYMPICS: Penalizing women’s curling team 'despicable'-Canadian Curling skipper

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy – Canadian men's skip Brad Jacobs criticized curling officials on Sunday, calling it “despicable” that women's teammate Rachel Homan had a stone removed for double touching during a Winter Olympics match.

The curling competition has been clouded by controversy after Sweden’s men’s team accused Canadian curlers of double touching stones on Friday, sparking a heated clash between players and a media frenzy.

In response, World Curling initially announced that the remainder of the competition would have two officials monitoring the hog line, the point where curlers must release the stone during delivery.

Following the introduction of these officials on Saturday, Homan had a stone removed after being judged to have touched it twice during delivery.

Jacobs, who was present at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium during the women’s team’s 6-3 loss to Switzerland, did not hold back.

“What happened with her with the rock was despicable. That’s the word that comes to mind. When we all sat up there and watched that happen, I thought it was despicable,” he said after Canada’s 6-3 win over China in a men’s round-robin session.

“I felt immediately that as Canadian curlers we were targeted. To go out and pull her rock like that was a tragedy. Mid-week, when you see umpires come out who aren’t trained to do what they’re doing and are pulling rocks out of games as if they’re burnt stones, that’s a disaster. That’s how I feel about it, and I think the vast majority of players on both the men’s and women’s sides feel the same way.”

World Curling reversed its decision to increase officiating on Sunday, but not before British curler Bobby Lammie also had a rock removed during a morning session.

Jacobs said of the second incident: “At that point, it made me feel like we weren’t being targeted, which is good. If he threw that rock that way against us, personally I would never want that rock removed. He did nothing wrong in my opinion.”

‘Untrained People’

Canadian coach Paul Webster questioned the federation’s decision to place officials at the hog line.

“I just think again we have untrained people doing things they’ve never done before. We’re not at some bonspiel in Saskatchewan just trying things out – we’re at the Olympics,” Webster said.

“I have a lot of respect for people volunteering their time, but we need to question if we should be doing this at the Olympic Games. The 20 teams here have spent four years preparing, and I would like our international federation to match that effort.”

World Curling did not immediately respond to a request for comment. -Reporting by Aadi Nair; editing by Clare Fallon/Reuters