AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Our Olympic curlers have tarnished Canada’s reputation

Curling used to be noted for being a gentleman and gentlewoman’s game. Canadians used to be known for being polite.

That changed last week when both Canada’s women’s and men’s curling teams got embroiled in a curling controversy that made headlines – all of which made Canada look terrible – around the world.

First the men, where it all started. By now you know that Sweden accused Team Canada of “double-touching” a stone. According to curling rules, once you remove your hand from the rock’s handle, you cannot touch the rock again.

Immediately upon being accused of double-touching, Canada’s Marc Kennedy instantly, without showing any fuse or any ability to check his emotions, started throwing f-bombs at the Swedes.

Because players wear microphones in curling, the swearing was caught on camera and quickly spread around the world via social media.

At that moment, a genteel game became a powder keg of bullying, denials and non-apologies.

Instead of having a measured, calm response that would have instantly defused the situation (“sorry, I inadvertently touched the rock”), Kennedy immediately launched into his embarrassing tirade.

Later, Kennedy offered a classic non-apology: “If I apologize at all, it’s to all the young curlers around the country that would have expected more from me in that moment.” No apology for blowing a fuse; no apology for the string of f-bombs caught on international TV. What’s worse, once video footage surfaced showing Kennedy had clearly touched the rock with his index finger after letting go of the handle, Kennedy never publicly apologized to Team Sweden. Shame on him.

(Note to Marc and anyone who finds themselves in a position where they need to atone: Opening up with a ridiculous caveat of “If I apologize at all” makes you look really small.)

It’s beyond disappointing that despite being caught red-handed and knowing there was video of him touching his rock twice, Kennedy foolishly denied any wrongdoing.

And here again, Team Canada made our nation look bad. Instead of acknowledging what happened and apologizing for it, they got mad that someone filmed Kennedy’s double-touch. They were upset not at their own mistake, but that someone recorded it for all the world to see.

The next day Team Canada skip Rachel Homan had her first rock removed from the rings because she double-touched her stone.

Like Kennedy, Homan loudly and defiantly said she never double-touched her rock and like the Kennedy episode, the video evidence clearly showed that she had.

Here’s another tip for people making loud pronouncements of innocence when there are TV cameras all over the place: take a split second to think about you’re about to say before reflexively offering a flat-out denial when there is a high probability that incontrovertible evidence of your rule breaking has been caught on video.

After she threw her second rock, Homan was filmed walking over to the official who called the infraction and removed the skip’s stone and, with TV cameras rolling, loudly berated the official, saying something to the effect “that’s exactly how I threw my first stone.” Homan later told reporters that officials had “no business” making that call (which is a ridiculous thing to say when officials, by definition, are there to make calls). Shame on her.

It was a horrible look for Homan, a horrible look for Kennedy and ultimately, a horrible look for Canada.

Thanks to the shamelessness shown by Kennedy and Homan, Canadians now look like bullies: whiny, entitled and petty. Thanks to their blustery and provably wrong denials, Canada is now swirling in an international sporting controversy that could have been stopped in its tracks if our Canadian curlers had handled the situation better.