Homan’s in hot water
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.
“There are options, but we’ve burnt rocks in the past at a national championships and they’ve come off,” Homan said in her defence. “Burning a rock is not something that you can do. It’s just the rules, I guess.”
The move originally paid off, as Canada scored four in the fifth end to take a 6-4 lead. But Denmark got the last laugh, scoring two in the 10th to force and extra end and stealing the winning point in the 11th when Homan wrecked her last shot on a guard.
Also Friday, Calgary’s Kevin Koe improved to 4-0 in men’s curling competition with a 7-6 win over South Korea. In figure skating, Toronto’s Patrick Chan fell on a triple axel and sat sixth after the men’s short program. Ottawa speedskater Ivanie Blondin was fifth in the women’s 5,000 metres, and cross-country skier Alex Harvey of Saint-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., was seventh in the men’s 15-kilometre free.
With four gold, five silver and four bronze, Canada was tied for third with the Netherlands in the overall medal standings with 13. Canada was tied for fifth with Sweden in gold medals, behind Germany (9), Norway and the Netherlands (6) and the United States (5).
— In the women’s 5,000, Blondin was in a bronze medal position with one pair left to go, but was bumped down to fifth when Martina Sablikova of the Czech Republic, a two-time Olympic champion in the distance, and Russian Natalia Voronina earned silver and bronze respectively.
No one could catch Esmee Visser, who won a sixth speedskating gold medal for the dominant Netherlands.
Ottawa’s Isabelle Weidemann was sixth.
— Harvey was in a medal position midway through the men’s 15k, but admitted he didn’t have the acceleration to reach the podium.
Switzerland’s Dario Cologna won his third gold medal in the distance and fourth overall. He was dominant, beating Norway’s Simen Hegstad Krueger in 18.3 seconds. Russian Denis Spitsov was third.