Olympics-Curling-As double touching drama continues at Games, curlers are open to video review

By Aadi Nair

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 15 (Reuters) - As controversy continues to swirl in the curling competition at the Winter Olympics over the double touching of stones, curlers say they are open to the prospect of introducing video replays to the sport.

On Friday, Sweden's men's team accused Canadian curlers of double touching stones, triggering a heated clash between players and a subsequent media frenzy.

In response, World Curling said the remainder of the Olympic competition would have officials monitoring the hog line, the point where curlers must let go during delivery.

Since the officials were introduced on Saturday, Canada women's skip Rachel Homan and British men's curler Bobby Lammie have had stones removed due to double touches.

The governing body do not use video replays in games and instead use electronic handles to detect hog line violations.

'MODERNISED' CURLING

Lammie's teammate Hammy McMillan Jr said the introduction of a system like Hawk-Eye, used in tennis and cricket, or soccer's Video Assistant Referee, could help.

"You bring in VAR or Hawk-Eye, and each team gets a challenge or two, so you've got to be dead certain that somebody did that (violation)," the Scot added.

"I think that would be quite cool, it would maybe make curling a bit more modernised. I think video review could be the next thing, with teams getting challenges."

Luc Violette, part of the United States men's team, said it was hard for umpires standing on the sidelines to spot split-second violations.

"I think I'd like to see some more access to video. It's such a good tool for us and you can see it (violations) so much better," he added.

"It's hard to officiate because we always say at the release, the hand's quicker than the eye. It really happens quite quickly.

"I think the officials are trying to do what they can with the rules in place right now, but I would like to see them be allowed to use video review... I definitely would love to see the sport embrace technology in as many ways as possible."

INSTANT REPLAY 'WOULD BE HUGE'

The United States' women's team second Tara Peterson said instant replay would also be useful for situations other than hog line violations.

"There's some curling spaces where it's wood on the walls," Peterson said.

"We've had rocks bounce off and not know where they would go. You can't look at an instant replay. There's instances where an instant replay would be huge.

"Or if somebody accidentally hits a guard with their foot, where should that be?"

British women's skip Sophie Jackson was less enthusiastic about the idea of adding video replays, saying it could slow down play.

"We've spoken about in curling, for viewers, that we need to keep that pace up," she added.

"So I think VAR probably isn't the way to go in my opinion. We've always been a game that tries to play by the rules and have that high sportsmanship level. Hopefully we can figure that back out with this rule."