Sports
Olympic curling scandal threatens to forever alter the sport’s culture of trust
MILAN — Cheating has been part of the Olympics since the ancient games, when violators were punished with fines, public flogging or lifetime bans.
The Milan-Cortina Games have hardly been an exception, although there have been no reports of public flogging.
These Olympics started with controversy when a report in the German newspaper Bild alleged ski jumpers were injecting hyaluronic acid into their penises in an effort to fly further. Then came a different kind of cheating when medal-winning Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid confessed to infidelity in a TV interview.
Both scandals drew attention even if most people already knew that all is not fair in love and soar.
But those paled in comparison to the outcry that erupted when some curlers — Canadian curlers — were accused of bending the rules. That was held up as a great breach of etiquette, instigating calls for additional officials and even video reviews in a sport where competitors have traditionally called their own fouls.
“Curling has historically operated on a culture of trust and self-regulation,” said Heather Mair, chair of recreation and leisure studies at the University of Waterloo and an expert on the social aspects of curling. “At most levels, players call their own infractions. They compete against people they know well, often in relatively small circuits, and they see each other repeatedly over the course of a season.
“That relational fabric has long been part of the sport’s informal governance.”
But when the sport returned to Olympic competition in 1998 after a 74-year break, that began to change. Suddenly, national pride, medals and funding were at stake. And after the Milan-Cortina Games ends, a well-funded professional league, the Rock League, will launch with six teams, further accelerating the sport’s evolution from hobby to profession.
“The whole context of the Olympics is the story here,” Mair said.
“What we’re seeing in curling is this kind of dramatic, heart-wrenching conversation within the sport about cheating and honesty and all this kind of stuff. Did that happen before in this case with the ski jumping? Was there this heart-wrenching conversation about cheating?”
Canada’s (from left) Brett Gallant, Marc Kennedy and Ben Hebert compete against the China at the Winter Olympics on Sunday.
(David J. Phillip / Associated Press)
To review, the Canadian men’s and women’s teams were accused of double touching the stone during release. The rules state a player may retouch the handle as many times as they wish when delivering a stone — as long as they do so before the hog line, the thick stripe that marks the end of the release zone. Touching the handle after the hog line is not allowed.
So when did Canada’s Marc Kennedy and Rachel Homan last touch their stones?
During Canada’s win over Sweden on Friday, the Swedes taped Kennedy’s release and the video showed him touching the stone with his index finger after releasing the handle. Kennedy, who was mic-d up, responded to Sweden’s allegations by swearing, which is also a break from curling culture.
A day later, World Curling, the governing body for the sport, deployed additional officials to monitor the hog line, and Homan had a stone disqualified in Canada’s loss to Switzerland when it was determined she touched it twice.
“This feels like a new era of surveillance for the sport,” Mair said. “I just don’t know how else we manage it.”
Modern stones have hog-line sensors built into the handles, so they reliably detect late release of the handle. But they don’t detect a brief touch on the granite itself. And without an umpire watching closely — or without video evidence — that kind of infraction can be difficult to spot.
“Despicable,” Canadian men’s skip Brad Jacobs said of the additional scrutiny. “As Canadian curlers, we were targeted. And to go out and pull her rock like that, I think it was a tragedy.”
Canada’s Rachel Homan competes against China at the Milan-Cortina Games on Monday.
(Fatima Shbair / Associated Press)
Canadian coach Paul Jacobs took a more nuanced approach, conceding there’s a problem but disagreeing with the solution.
“If you listen to what Sweden said, and I think they’re right, this has been a problem that they’ve tried to identify to our international federation. And it wasn’t acted on,” Jacobs said. “Now we’re trying to quickly fix things at an Olympics, and I think it’s the wrong thing to do.
“A double-touch stone, or whatever it is, none of these officials have ever gone through any of their courses. We have untrained people doing things they’ve never done before. And we’re not at some bonspiel in Saskatchewan just trying things out. We’re at the Olympics.”
For Mair, the lament is that the very public controversy playing out on that Olympic stage will force changes at the top level of the sport that will trickle down to the grassroots. And what will be lost when that happens will alter curling forever.
“Once they start messing around with this trust, I think we’re on a pretty sad path,” Mair said. “This feels so ugly. But the value of these Olympic medals are such that, I guess this stuff can be sacrificed.”
Sports
Kylian Mbappé’s seventh goal of the World Cup lifts France past Paraguay in physical Round of 16 match
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The United States may not have been in action on Independence Day, but France — who fittingly played an important role in the Revolutionary War — was on the pitch in Philadelphia against Paraguay in a massive Round of 16 clash for a trip to the quarterfinals.
It was a hot day in the birthplace of our nation, and that made things difficult for both teams in more ways than one.
While Paraguay is a great squad, they were significant underdogs against a heavily favored French team led by superstar Kylian Mbappé, who has been lighting it up this tournament.
THIS ‘AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL’ RENDITION BEFORE THE FRANCE VS PARAGUAY MATCH WILL GIVE YOU GOOSEBUMPS
French and Paraguayan players get into a shoving match during their Round of 16 match on Saturday in Philadelphia. (Kyle Ross-Imagn Images)
Obviously, the heat itself is a factor, but it also made for a slower pitch, something that was believed to play into the hands of Paraguay.
However, most of the action in the first half was played on their end as France put the pressure on through the first half hour of the match.
It was intense, and that intensity boiled over in the 35th minute with some pushing and shoving after Mbappé and Paraguay’s Andrés Cubas started a wild shoving match.
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But while the intensity ramped up — and stayed high for pretty much the entire game — Paraguay weathered the storm and had every reason to feel good about reaching halftime with the game scoreless.
France got some more scoring opportunities in the early part of the second half, including a near-breakaway for Mbappé.
France’s Kylian Mbappe scored the go-ahead and ultimately game-winning goal against Paraguay on a penalty kick. (James Lang-Imagn Images)
In the 67th minute, France was awarded a penalty kick for a foul against Desire Doue that had to go to VAR for review, and it was Mbappé who took it.
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Mbappé has tended to do most of his damage in the second half, and that trend continued here with him drilling the penalty past Paraguay goaltender Orlando Gill.
That was his 19th career World Cup goal, and his seventh of this tournament alone, tying him with Argentina’s Lionel Messi for the tournament lead.
Paraguay seemed to fade after the Mbappé goal, but turned it on again late, forcing Mike Maignan to make his first save of the day about 89 and a half minutes into the match.
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It seemed like Paraguay’s plan was to try and get a rise out of the French, and they succeeded in drawing three yellow cards. In fact, they even tried to keep that going after the match with players meeting near midfield for some more pushing and shoving.
But France is moving on, and they will take on Morocco in a quarterfinal match on Thursday in Boston.
The Dodgers have four more 2026 All-Stars joining Shohei Ohtani on the National League squad.
Center fielder Andy Pages claimed the first All-Star nod of his career. And third baseman Max Muncy (three) first baseman Freddie Freeman (10) and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto (two) added to their Midsummer Classic honors.
Ohtani (six) bypassed phase two of All-Star voting by earning the most fan votes of any player in the first phase.
All of the Dodgers position players were elected as starters, marking the first time since 1980 that the team has had four All-Star starters.
The MLB All-Star Game will be played in Philadelphia on July 14.
Sports
Chris Johnson’s former teammate reflects on ex-star’s surprise ALS diagnosis, tight-knit bond after milestone
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The NFL world was stunned on Monday when it became public that Chris Johnson, one of just nine players ever to rush for 2,000 yards in a season, is suffering from ALS.
The news hit close to home for Ryan Fitzpatrick, who played for Johnson’s Tennessee Titans for a season. And despite it being just one year, the two have a special connection.
“He was a great teammate when I got to play with him for the one year, and obviously a super talented guy on the football field. We texted about a year ago. I was just looking back at our text messages, and one of the things that I had sent him — the 100th touchdown pass that I threw in the NFL was to CJ2K, and he signed the football for me and gave it to me. It says, ‘To my cool white boy. Congrats on number 100,’” Fitzpatrick recalled in an interview with Fox News Digital. “So the amount of street credit I have from Chris Johnson calling me a cool white boy has always been awesome to me.”
Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, No. 4 of the Tennessee Titans, hands off to running back Chris Johnson, No. 28, against the Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field on October 13, 2013 in Seattle, Washington. (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)
But ALS is just such a tough thing to have to deal with, obviously for Chris and for everybody around him. You can just imagine the frustrations of his mind being there but his body starting to fail him and how difficult that is. We’re obviously all hoping for the best for him, and all our love and support goes to him and his wife and his family.”
In a lengthy social media post, Johnson said that there is growing research that shows a link between repetitive head trauma and ALS, and studies have shown that NFL players are four times as likely to develop ALS as the general population.
Fitzpatrick, personally, said that when it comes to football, he would do it all over again, even as the risks are more prevalent now than ever before. However, what comes with age is more grim reality.
Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson runs against the Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., on Aug. 28, 2010. (Sam Sharpe/USA TODAY Sports)
FORMER NFL STAR CHRIS JOHNSON SAYS HE’S BEEN DIAGNOSED WITH ALS
“I do think guys playing football understand at least the broad scope of what the risks are. I think a lot of guys would tell you, and I would be the same way, football has given me so much in my life that it’s something I would do again in a heartbeat. And for my kids that want to pursue it, I’m happy for them to pursue it,” Fitzpatrick said.
“But as you get older, I’m 43, as you get older, and your parents get older, I lost my mom five years ago, there’s just more stuff that seems to happen. It’s really sad. One of my best friends from high school was diagnosed with ALS. So seeing that firsthand, and the difficulties that come with it, not just for him but everybody that is around him, it’s really hard. As you get older, stuff happens, and there are things that you have to deal with and figure out. So unfortunately, it’s a tough part about aging.”
There is no known cure for ALS – known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It’s a progressive disease in which the brain loses connection with the muscles, according to the ALS Association. The afflicted slowly lose their ability to walk, talk, eat, dress, write, swallow and, eventually, breathe.
Tennessee Titans running back Chris Johnson breaks free for a long run against the San Francisco 49ers in the fourth quarter at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Nov. 8, 2009. The Titans defeated the 49ers 34-27. (Cary Edmondson/USA TODAY Sports)
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The former running back played in the NFL from 2008 to 2017 with the Titans, New York Jets and Arizona Cardinals.
Fox News’ Ryan Gaydos and Angelica Stabile contributed to this report.
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