Canada overcomes cheating allegations to win Olympic gold in men's curling at Milan Cortina Games

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) — The Canadian men brushed aside earlier accusations of cheating and beat Britain for Olympic gold in curling on Saturday at the Milan Cortina Games.

Brad Jacobs’ team defeated Bruce Mouat’s all-Scottish squad 9-6 inside Cortina’s historic ice arena to give curling powerhouse Canada it’s only gold of the Olympics in the sport.

It’s Canada’s first gold in men’s curling since the 2014 Sochi Games, when they also beat Britain in the final with Jacobs as the skip. This is his first Olympics since then — he lost in the Canadian Olympic trials for 2018 and 2022.

The British men have still not won Olympic gold since the inaugural Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix.

Mouat was off on the freeze and Canada chipped Britain out of the house for three in the ninth end.

Canada’s team also featured vice skip Marc Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert and Tyler Tardi.

Switzerland defeated Norway for bronze on Friday.

Double-touching turmoil

The Canadians last week were the subject of a controversy and a profanity-laced rant that got attention far beyond the ice when several players were accused of double-touching the rock, a rules violation.

The sport was sent into turmoil during the round-robin phase when Oskar Eriksson of Sweden accused Kennedy of breaking the rules by touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice. Kennedy responded with an outburst full of expletives.

Several other accusations of double-touching followed, and Canada lost its next match against Switzerland before steadying itself to go all the way.

Canadian women take bronze

Top-ranked Canada beat the United States for the bronze medal in the women’s competition earlier Saturday after being upset by Sweden in the semifinals.

Rachel Homan’s team won 10-7 to deny the American women their first medal in the event.

The Canadians had to overcome a 1-3 start to round-robin play.

“I’m really proud of our week and our fight,” Homan said. “We were never giving up right to the end, pulling for each other and when things were hard we just pulled closer together and tried to figure out how to make the next one.”

Sweden will play Switzerland for gold on Sunday.

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics