Olympians behaving badly? Recapping Milano Cortina's biggest controversies
CBC
On paper, the Olympic Games are about bringing the best of the best athletes from around the world together to compete for glory.
But with all that pressure and adrenaline in one place, the Olympics are always bound to have some controversy.
Milano Cortina 2026 has been no different, so here's a recap of some of the drama that's happened over the last two weeks.
Canadian curlers on both the men's and women's faced allegations of "double touching" the curling stone after it was released, which led to a profanity-laced spat on the ice that generated international headlines.
On Feb. 13, Swedish curler Oskar Eriksson accused Canadian curler Marc Kennedy of breaking the rules by touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice.
Kennedy was furious, telling the Swede to "f–k off." When Eriksson said he'd pull up video evidence later, Kennedy said, "I don't give a shit."
The curling confrontation launched dozens of memes, many featuring some creative photoshopping of Kennedy and his curling rock.
Though Kennedy apologized for his behaviour, the double-touching allegation dogged him through these Games.
The Swiss team also accused Canada of the same thing as skip Yannick Schwaller defeated Canada. The women's team also wasn't able to escape similar allegations after an umpire accused acclaimed Canadian skip Rachel Homan of the same infraction in Canada's match against Switzerland.
The allegations didn't stop the Canadians from reaching the podium, though. The women's team won a hard-fought bronze medal game against the U.S. while the men's team captured gold in a tightly-contested game against Great Britain.
A post-race interview took an unexpected turn when Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid started talking about his personal life instead of the sport.
"Six months ago I met the love of my life. The world's most beautiful, sweetest person. And three months ago I made the biggest mistake of my life and cheated on her," Laegreid said in the emotional interview after winning bronze in the men's Olympic biathlon competition.
He said he wanted to tell the world in the hopes she would see what she means to him.
The stunning confession did not go over well with critics, who said it took the focus away from teammate Johan-Olav Botn, who won gold in the event.
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