The sport of curling is wrestling with how to modernize its officiating after a heated cheating controversy at the Winter Olympics exposed flaws in its traditional honor system. World Curling officials are now considering giving referees more authority to make calls, moving away from the sport's long-standing tradition of players calling their own fouls.
The genteel sport of curling is wrestling with a fundamental question about its future after a heated Olympic controversy exposed serious flaws in how the game polices itself.
For generations, curling has operated on an honor system where athletes are trusted to call their own rule violations. But that tradition came under intense scrutiny when Swedish and Canadian teams engaged in a bitter dispute over alleged cheating, complete with profanity and accusations flying on the ice.
Officials found themselves powerless to do much beyond issuing warnings after the heated exchange, highlighting the limitations of the current system. When World Curling attempted to give referees more authority, players immediately pushed back and criticized the training of officials, forcing leadership to quickly reverse course.
World Curling President Beau Welling acknowledged the sport’s governing body was already examining potential changes before the Olympic incident.
“We were in the process of looking at some rules, empowering our umpires. We have highly trained umpires, but their role, pursuant to our rules, is really to help players make decisions,” Welling explained to Reuters.
“The actual power about rules and infractions are with the players. We come from a call-your-own-foul sort of culture, but we increasingly see a need to have more umpires be able to make decisions.”
Welling emphasized that expanding referee authority would represent a fundamental shift that couldn’t happen quickly.
“It’s a change for athletes, who have to be willing to accept decisions,” he noted.
“Umpires have to be confident to make decisions, and we’ve got to make sure that those decisions are accurate. It’s a process for us. If anything, this might have accelerated that process.”
The Olympic controversy reached a boiling point when Canadian player Marc Kennedy, who cursed twice during the dispute, proclaimed that curling’s traditional spirit had died and predicted teams would resort to any tactics necessary for victory.
Despite the turmoil, Welling maintains the sport can evolve while preserving its core values.
“It is a game of honour, integrity, and values. We don’t ever want to lose that,” he stated.
“We still want that to be part of our DNA… We’ve got to hold on to the spirit of curling, but we have to adapt.
“No offence to the NBA, but we don’t want to become like that. Is the spirit of the sport going to be challenged? Yes. Do I think we’re going to have to evolve? Yes. But we all want to keep that.”
While the controversy raised questions about curling’s future, it also delivered an unexpected benefit: unprecedented attention for the typically low-profile sport.
The heated exchanges sparked countless internet memes, intense online discussions, and extensive media coverage worldwide.
“I tend to be in the camp that any publicity is good publicity, to be honest, and this has certainly put a lot more eyeballs on the sport,” Welling observed.
“I’ve got people calling me from the United States that are like, ‘holy smokes, I didn’t realise you guys did that in curling’.
“We’ve also had incredible curling, and the publicity that we’re getting really around the world is just amazing… It’s very exciting, so we’ve been super pleased with the Games.”
Looking toward the 2030 Winter Olympics, Welling expressed optimism about upcoming developments, particularly changes to the world championship structure.
Starting in the 2026-27 season, the annual world tournament will grow from 13 to 18 participating teams, a move Welling believes will boost revenue, increase global interest, and provide more countries with pathways to Olympic qualification.
“It’s really going to make curling even broader … you’re going to have more countries have a more realistic chance to qualify for 2030 than we would have had for 2026,” he concluded.