Canadian curler Marc Kennedy recently clarified his position after the brawl with Team Sweden. While Team Canada registered a hat-trick of victories with an 8-6 win over their Swedish counterparts, the occasion was marred by a verbal altercation between the two sides and Kennedy swearing at the Swedish team.
Kennedy later revealed that he could have handled the situation better. He offered no excuses for his situation and hoped this wouldn’t happen again.
Marc Kennedy Explains His Position on the Curling Controversy After Sweden
In an interview just after the curling match with the Swedish team, the Canadian curler Kennedy revealed that while he wasn’t wrong, he should’ve been more graceful in his conduct. Kennedy mentioned in the post-match interview,
“It wasn’t great. You know, we’re looking forward to moving on from it. You know, to be completely honest with you, I probably could have handled myself better in the moment. My whole life, I’ve been a bit like that. If my integrity gets questioned, that’s – we’re human out there. There’s a lot of emotions. No question, I could have handled it better though.”
Marc Kennedy offers some regret for Friday’s fiery exchange and apologizes to young curling fans 🇨🇦🥌 pic.twitter.com/IiSwCR1Z4H
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 14, 2026
In another interview after the game against Sweden, Kennedy revealed that he was anguished by the way he was accused of being a cheat after taking part in four Winter Olympics [including the current one]. In his words,
“I don’t like being accused of cheating after 25 years on tour and four Olympic Games. He’s still accusing us of cheating, and I didn’t like it. So I told him where to stick it, because we’re the wrong team to do that to. So I don’t care. He might have been upset that he was losing.”
For his conduct against Sweden, Kennedy, as well as the rest of the Canadian team, received a verbal warning from local authorities at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. However, Team Canada was cleared of any wrongdoing by World Curling, the sport’s apex body. In a press brief, World Curling stated,
“The issue of second touches of the stone, specifically the granite, during the delivery was brought to the umpire’s attention. Officials spoke with both teams and set game umpires at the hogline to monitor deliveries for three ends, which is the official protocol following this type of complaint. There were no hogline violations or retouches of the stone during the observation period.”
Team Canada has won three out of the four matches they have played at the men’s curling tournament in the Winter Olympics, having lost the last match to Switzerland. They will compete next against Team China.
