CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Maybe we’ve gotten the Canadians all wrong.
They seem to have the market cornered on niceness, the type of folks who always say hello and never have a bad word to say about anyone or anything. Certainly not the type to cause a ruckus or, gasp, cheat.
And yet …
For the second Olympics in a row, Canada is facing accusations that it’s playing fast and loose with the rules to get an edge. Last time it was soccer, when the Canadian women’s team was caught using drones to spy on opponents at the 2024 Paris Olympics. At the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, it’s curling. Curling!
Canada’s men’s team was called out not once but twice over the weekend for “double touching,” which can be either touching the stone after its release or touching the granite at any point. Then Canada’s women were accused of a similar offense.
“Obviously it’s frustrating to have that happen,” said Canada skip Rachel Homan, who had a stone removed from the ice for a double-touch violation during a match against Sweden on Saturday, Feb. 14.
“But we’re trying to stick together as a team, and we’re supporting the guys and they’re doing the same for us,” Homan said. “There’s zero intention. It kind of got blown up for no reason.”
That is probably true.
The Canadian curlers are accused of trying to manipulate their stones’ trajectory, not carrying them down the ice and depositing them in the house (the bullseye that is the curlers’ goal).
Plus, a curling stone weighs between 38 and 44 pounds and there is 21 feet of ice between the hogline and the house. Giving the handle an extra tap, or even touching the granite, isn’t going to be what gets Canada on the podium.
But it’s the combination of a cheating scandal in curling – which is always going to be fodder for the “sport, not a sport” debate – and the nicest people on earth being at the center of it that has turned it into the cause celebre at these Games.
“There’s always something blowing up at the Olympics, right? This year it’s this,” sweeper Emma Miskew said after Canada beat China on Monday, Feb. 16, to get to 2-3 in the tournament at the Milano Cortina Olympics.
“It’s all good. We’ll get through it,” Miskew said. “I think it’ll die down eventually.”
Yes, but what about the damage done to Canada’s image as the country nobody can hate?
Canadians are the human equivalent of Disneyland. The next time they’re accused of being obnoxious or braggarts it will be the first. They’re easy-going and fun. Being around them is an immediate mood boost.
They’re like Australians, only with moose and maple syrup instead of koalas and kangaroos.
Now the world, especially people not paying close attention, are going to think Canada is just as corrupt as everybody else. That they’ll cut corners and throw people under the bus if it benefits them.
The Canadians don’t see it that way, of course. They believe they’re the wronged party.
“We’ve played the game at a high level long enough where we weren’t looking for infractions. … We just trust that the people around us aren’t trying to cheat,” said Canada’s Marc Kennedy, who was called out for double touching by Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson to start this whole mess.
“There might be small infractions here and there, but most of the time you shrug it off. You’ve got so much respect for the players that you’re playing against,” Kennedy said Monday. “So this whole trying to catch people in the act of an infraction and anything to win a medal, it sucks. It’s unfortunate, but it is what it is.”
Except there’s video of the infractions. And while the Canadians might say they’re inadvertent, it was a similar story initially in Paris.
The women’s coaching staff initially denied involvement or knowledge of the drone scheme, only for an investigation to reveal that it was a long-standing operation and the coaches had full knowledge and involvement in it.
Maybe this time is different. Maybe the double touch accusations are nothing but a misunderstanding. But when a country has cheating scandals in back-to-back Olympics, it starts to look like a pattern. And once trust is broke, the cloud of suspicion is almost impossible to clear.
Even if you’re Canadian.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.