Olympics-Curling-Sport faces identity crisis as cheating controversy forces rethink of regulations

By Aadi Nair

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 21 (Reuters) - After being shaken by claims of cheating at the Winter Olympics, curling finds itself between a rock and a hard place as it looks to regulate an increasingly competitive sport while keeping alive the long-standing honour-based system it so cherishes.

Curling has always prided itself on being a sport where players call their own fouls, but when Canada were accused of cheating by Sweden in a fiery clash, the limitations of that approach were laid bare.

With players firing off expletives and accusing each other of wrongdoing, there was little officials could do except issue a post-game warning.

Even when World Curling tried to increase oversight, players complained almost immediately and questioned the training of umpires, forcing the governing body to quickly backtrack.

It was an issue the governing body was already aware of.

"We were in the process of looking at some rules, empowering our umpires. We have highly trained umpires, but their role, pursuant to our rules, is really to help players make decisions," president Beau Welling told Reuters.

"The actual power about rules and infractions are with the players. We come from a call-your-own-foul sort of culture, but we increasingly see a need to have more umpires be able to make decisions."

CULTURAL CHANGE

Welling said increasing the power of umpires was a massive cultural change that would not happen overnight.

"It's a change for athletes, who have to be willing to accept decisions," he added.

"Umpires have to be confident to make decisions, and we've got to make sure that those decisions are accurate. It's a process for us. If anything, this might have accelerated that process."

In the chaos after the cheating scandal, Canada's Marc Kennedy, who twice swore on the rink, declared the spirit of curling was dead and warned that the sport was entering an era where teams would do anything to win.

Welling, however, insisted the sport could adapt to this new era without losing its soul.

"It is a game of honour, integrity, and values. We don't ever want to lose that," he added.

"We still want that to be part of our DNA... We've got to hold on to the spirit of curling, but we have to adapt.

"No offence to the NBA, but we don't want to become like that. Is the spirit of the sport going to be challenged? Yes. Do I think we're going to have to evolve? Yes. But we all want to keep that."

EYEBALLS ON THE SPORT

Whether the spirit of curling is dead or not, one thing is sure - a lot more people know about the sport than they did before.

The controversy sparked a flurry of memes, heated debate online and widespread global media coverage for the usually niche sport.

"I tend to be in the camp that any publicity is good publicity, to be honest, and this has certainly put a lot more eyeballs on the sport," Welling said.

"I've got people calling me from the United States that are like, 'holy smokes, I didn't realise you guys did that in curling'.

"We've also had incredible curling, and the publicity that we're getting really around the world is just amazing... It's very exciting, so we've been super pleased with the Games."

While there is much work to do before the next Winter Olympics in 2030, Welling said he was excited about the coming four years, pointing to the body's new world championships format.

The annual tournament will expand to 18 teams from 13 beginning in the 2026-27 season, which Welling said would drive revenue, generate more global interest and give more nations a potential route to the world championship and thus the Olympics.

"It's really going to make curling even broader ... you're going to have more countries have a more realistic chance to qualify for 2030 than we would have had for 2026," he added.