Canada's curling team fires back at Sweden after the Swedes accused Canadians of cheating at the Winter Olympics. Marc Kennedy alleged Sweden planned to catch teams breaking rules.

Curling at the Winter Olympics is always a fan-favorite event, but its viral popularity reached new heights thanks to a heated confrontation between Team Canada and Team Sweden at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games.

A curling match between Canada and Sweden on Friday erupted with profanity-laced back-and-forth over cheating allegations.

Until Friday, the American women had never beaten Canada — a perennial favorite that has medaled in every Winter Games since curling was added to the Olympics in 1998. The U.S. men beat the Canadians for the first time in the 2018 round-robin and again in the semifinals en route to their gold medal victory in Pyeongchang.

A look at the 10 teams competing in women's curling at the 2026 Winter Olympics as Team Peterson seeks a second curling medal for the U.S. at the Milan Cortina Games.

While the Swedish team thought Kennedy and Canada were making contact with the stone beyond the hog line -- the line where curlers have to let go of the stone -- World Curling reportedly later said that there were "no hog line violations or retouches of the stone during the observation."

Homan was penalized for double touching the stone in Canada’s loss to Switzerland on Saturday.

Until Friday, the American women had never beaten Canada -- a perennial favorite that has medaled in every Winter Games since curling was added to the Olympics in 1998. The U.S. men beat the Canadians for the first time in the 2018 round-robin and again in the semifinals en route to their gold medal victory in Pyeongchang.

Protective gear is in short supply in Italy as tensions boil over in the curling and a Norwegian-born Brazilian makes history. Here are the quick hits from the Winter Olympics.