Olympic Roundup: Curling controversy for struggling women’s skip Homan
PYEONGCHANG, Korea, Republic Of — On a day when Canada didn’t figure into the medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games, a curling controversy took centre stage instead.
Rachel Homan and her Ottawa rink dropped to 0-3 in the women’s curling tournament with a 9-8 extra-end loss to Denmark on Friday. That alone is a troubling start for a team heavily favoured to win gold at these Games. But Homan, who uncharacteristically missed on two key shots, also had her sense of sportsmanship come into question. She was criticized on social media by some curling fans by ordering a “burned” Danish rock removed in the fifth end.
A burned rock is one that is touched by a curler while in play. The opposing team then has three choices: They can ignore the foul, rearrange the stones to whatever position they think they would have ended up if the stone hadn’t been touched, or remove the stone from play.
Curlers often ignore the foul, but Homan’s decision had some criticizing the move as unsportsmanlike.