Curling is known for its extraordinary fair play and is therefore one of the few sports that largely does without referees. But now allegations against a team are causing a sensation that also defeated Germany in a controversial way.
The men’s curling World Cup has come to an end: Scotland became world champion and Germany is happy about the Olympic ticket. But a scandal currently overshadows this positive news.
Because during the tournament, fraud against the Chinese team, which gained importance from day to day, were found, the more indications of it. In the end, underdog China (17th place in the World Ranking) just missed a medal and finished fourth.
China’s Li Zhichao is faced with allegations of fraud
What is it about? China is accused of leading to “Burning a Rock” situations on purpose. This means that when wiping the stone played, contact is made with the broom – or a part of the body.
Usually this happens in a sport that is otherwise considered to be very fair and is immediately admitted by the respective team, whereupon the affected stone is ideally stopped on the go and taken out of the game.
This is exactly what China did not repeat and even seemed to make the contact consciously to push the respective stone in the desired direction.
This curling video triggers an outcry
However, this only became a bigger topic after the quarter -finals against Norway when the CBS reporter Devin Heroux posted a video on X to show exactly this.
In this excerpt, at least it looks as if the Chinese Li Zhichao deliberately looked for contact with the stone with its broom at the last moment to change its direction.
The Norwegians immediately noticed this, since even small unusual change of direction, experienced curling players generally noticed – however, the official escaped this and Norway’s team went in vain in exchange with the Chinese who didn’t want to have noticed anything.
Curling World Cup: That’s why there is no video evidence
As the world association “World Curling” explained on request, the video evidence was also not allowed, since it could not have been made available in every game of this competition.
After talking to the Chinese, Norway decided not to open a greater barrel from the situation and not to take a protest afterwards, which is also very unusual in curling.
In the end, China was very close to 8: 7 in the World Cup quarter -finals – possibly also thanks to this stone. Li Zhichao and China’s coach Weidong Tan emphasized after the game that they had not noticed any contact.
Australia’s former Skip Jay Merchant found clear words on social media: “I have played against China in the past 15 years. It is a team that I never trusted on the ice – and for good reason. There is no place in curling. You have to consider sanctions.”
Also chose China against the German team?
What makes the situation even more questionable and an accident: According to TheCurlingnew’s around China’s team, there are further controversial situation – including in the game against the German team.
There, a stone is also said to have been deliberately initiated – this time with the foot – what Germany cost an important counter in this end, China won in the end with 11:10.
The German team around Skip Marc Muskatewitz complained after the scene, but again the Chinese team didn’t want to have noticed anything unusual. The desire for the video evidence could not be fulfilled for the reason above.
Canada is preparing for possible fraud attempts
It was only after the game against Norway that the doubts about some Chinese stone had got around and the opposing teams began to prepare for them in a targeted manner. So Canada took in the duel for bronze China’s key tests in order to be able to protest in case of doubt.
“Our officials on the world and Olympic level have to take on a more direct role in such situations,” said Canada’s coach Paul Webster. His protégé Ben Hebert went even further and said that the Chinese quartet was “not a real team”.
Curling will now have to devote itself to this problem, because with the 2026 Olympic Games, the greatest event is waiting for the sport. The sport in Cortina d’Ampezzo will certainly not be able to use fraud against one or possibly even several teams, if the current case is not being examined precisely.