‘The whole spirit of curling is dead’: meltdown on the ice as ruckus rumbles on
Well hell’s bells, who knew the ice could get so hot? The Olympic curling community is still all in a twist about everything that’s gone on in the sport since a row broke out between the Sweden and Canada sides on Friday.“The whole spirit of curling is dead,” Canada’s Marc Kennedy said on Monday night after his team’s 8-2 victory against Czech Republic, which felt like a bold take coming from the man who started this entire farrago by repeatedly telling his Swedish opponent Oskar Eriksson to “fuck off” after Eriksson accused him of making an illegal double‑touch.On Tuesday, the Canadians were outplaying the British.They beat them handily, 9-5, which means Bruce Mouat’s team have to beat the USA team and hope other results go their way if they’re going to make the semi-finals.“Mouat gave us a couple of misses to work with,” Kennedy said.
“Which isn’t something we’ve had from him before.” Then he left, grateful, he said, that he hadn’t had to face “a nuclear question”.There have been a lot of those in the past few days.On Tuesday morning there was talk that one of the Swedish journalists had new photographic evidence of the Canadian women’s skip making another double‑touch.There has never been a bonspiel quite like it.
The way the Canadians play it, curling is a sport where a competitor is supposed to take his opponent’s word.“This whole trying to catch people in the act of an infraction sucks,” Kennedy said on Monday.“We don’t look for infractions at grand slams.We don’t look for that kind of stuff on tour.We just trust that the people around us aren’t trying to cheat.
If somebody does something out of hand, it just gets dealt with in the moment, and you move on, you don’t need the officials to manage our game.That’s where the spirit of curling is in a little bit of trouble, and, honestly, that’s probably come from the quest for medals.”Curling, Kennedy says, is supposed to be a game for gentlemen.“It is what it is,” he said ruefully.“The sport is evolving.
”And how.The row has turned out to be the biggest thing to happen to it since it was brought back into the Olympic programme in 1998.The slow-motion footage of Kennedy brushing the stone with his forefinger has gone viral, and the internet is overflowing with sloppy AI skits of Kennedy nudging ice hockey pucks and knocking over figure skaters at the ice rink.On TikTok someone put together a spoof of Kennedy and Eriksson in a whole Heated Rivalry situation, which has pulled in 2.5 million views.
It’s fair to say the organisers were caught short by the speed and size of the reaction.They ended up bringing in two extra referees just to police the hog‑line, then took them away again after the curlers complained about it.“We’re not at some bonspiel in Saskatchewan, we’re at the Olympics,” the Canada team’s coach, Paul Webster, said.“We have untrained people doing things they’ve never done before.I have a lot of respect for people who are here and volunteering their time, but I think we really have to question if we’re doing new things at the Olympic Games.
”Whatever has been lost, some of the curlers acknowledge that something has been gained too, though no one is sure whether it’s for the better or not.The sport couldn’t buy this publicity if it tried.The Curling Group are launching a new international franchise competition called The Rock League next April, Mouat and a bunch of the others have already signed up to play in it.“There’s been a lot of talk about the negativity of everything that’s going on,” the Canadian skip, Brad Jacobs, said.“But when you actually look at everything that’s gone on, and you consider how many eyeballs turned to curling over the last 72 hours, it’s probably the best thing ever for our sport.
“What does the world feed off nowadays? Negativity.But that’s OK.Like I said, all of that negativity brought a lot of eyeballs to the sport of curling that maybe have never even considered looking at it before.” The pity is that unless Great Britain get lucky it won’t be Mouat they are watching, even though he is widely regarded as the best player in the sport today.
Boost to British Steel as Turkey places high-speed rail order
British Steel has secured an order worth tens of millions of pounds to supply rail for a high-speed electric railway in Turkey, amid continuing uncertainty over the long-term future of the government-controlled steelworks in Scunthorpe.The site will supply 36,000 tonnes of rail to ERG International Group, the company announced, in what it called an “eight-figure agreement”.The rail is destined for a 599km railway line being built to connect the Turkish capital, Ankara, with the western port city of İzmir, which will reduce the travel time and cut carbon emissions.British Steel said securing the contract had allowed it to create 23 new roles at the north Lincolnshire site and to restart round-the-clock rail manufacturing for the first time in more than a decade.The deal, which was supported by UK Export Finance, is seen as a commercial boost for the loss-making manufacturer
Goldman Sachs to drop race, gender and LGBTQ+ criteria from board evaluations
Goldman Sachs is removing race, gender and other diversity-related considerations when evaluating prospective candidates for its executive board after pressure from an activist shareholder group to remove the criteria.The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), a small Goldman shareholder, quietly submitted a request to the company last September asking the bank to eliminate its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) board criteria.According to a Wall Street Journal report, Goldman recently informed the group that it plans to remove the DEI criteria, and the two parties signed an agreement under which the NLPC would withdraw its proposal.Goldman’s board is expected to approve the changes this month, people familiar with the matter told the Journal.Currently, the board’s governance committee evaluates qualified candidates based primarily on four factors
Palantir moves headquarters to Miami amid tech’s growing retreat to Florida
Palantir announced on Tuesday that it has moved its headquarters to Miami from Denver. The data analytics company, criticized for its role in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, joins a host of other businesses and billionaires that recently moved to Florida in search of a more business-friendly climate.Palantir’s move across state lines comes after its chair, Peter Thiel, announced on 31 December that he opened a Miami office for his private investment firm. Thiel already has a mansion in Miami Beach. The company, previously headquartered in Palo Alto, announced the move on X but did not provide further details or respond to a request for comment
AI’s workplace revolution is here – and anxiety is rising with it
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, The Guardian’s US tech editor, writing to you while cheering on Team USA in the Winter Olympics.Throughout 2026, The Guardian will publish a series of stories about how artificial intelligence is affecting modern labor. We’re calling it Reworked: A series about what’s at stake as AI disrupts our jobs.Our first story published this morning
Only winners in Lachie Neale media storm are those counting the clicks
Lachie Neale has what boxers call “ring geometry” – an intrinsic, spatial understanding of safe spots and danger zones. He has fast feet that can dance, decelerate and drive out of a stoppage. But all the things that make him such a magnificent footballer – his timing, judgment, diligence and ability to extricate himself from trouble were apparently absent in his private life. A Lions grand final hero in September, he was tabloid fodder by Christmas.What follows isn’t some sermon from the puritanical pulpit
Japanese teenager Ami Nakai overshadows USA’s Blade Angels in women’s figure skating opener
Japanese teenager Ami Nakai was the surprise leader after the short program of the Olympic women’s figure skating competition on a night when her country’s skaters largely stole the spotlight from Team USA’s Blade Angels in their bid to end America’s two-decade medal drought.Nakai delivered a clean, commanding skate on Tuesday, highlighted by a soaring triple axel for a personal-best score of 78.71, edging three-time world champion Kaori Sakamoto (77.23) into second. Only Alysa Liu of the United States was able to break the Japanese hold on the top spots, scoring 76
Google puts users at risk by downplaying health disclaimers under AI Overviews
Starmer to extend online safety rules to AI chatbots after Grok scandal
California’s billionaires pour cash into elections as big tech seeks new allies
No swiping involved: the AI dating apps promising to find your soulmate
The problem with doorbell cams: Nancy Guthrie case and Ring Super Bowl ad reawaken surveillance fears
US military used Anthropic’s AI model Claude in Venezuela raid, report says