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02/21 16:46 CST Canada overcomes cheating allegations to win Olympic gold in men's curling at Milan Cortina Games Canada overcomes cheating allegations to win Olympic gold in men's curling at Milan Cortina Games By ANDREW DAMPF AP Sports Writer CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy (AP) --- The Canadian men brushed aside earlier accusations of cheating and beat Britain for Olympic gold in curling on Saturday at the Milan Cortina Games. Brad Jacobs' team defeated Bruce Mouat's all-Scottish squad 9-6 inside Cortina's historic ice arena to give curling powerhouse Canada its only gold of these Olympics in the sport. "When some things went down this week and people were using some pretty outrageous words like ?cheating' associated now with our team," Jacobs said, "I'll guarantee you that that only motivated us further." The Canadians last week were the subject of a controversy and a profanity-laced rant that got attention far beyond the ice when several players were accused of double-touching the rock, a rules violation. The sport was sent into turmoil during the round-robin phase when Oskar Eriksson of Sweden accused Canada vice skip Marc Kennedy of breaking the rules by touching the rock again after initially releasing it down the sheet of ice. Kennedy responded with an outburst full of expletives. Several other accusations of double-touching followed, and Canada lost its next match against Switzerland before steadying itself to go all the way. "For anyone who called us cheaters, for anyone who said negative things about Marc Kennedy, about us, about Canada, about our families," Jacobs said, "I hope that the image of us standing on top of the podium, embracing one another, smiling ear to ear with our gold medals is burned into your brain forever." It's Canada's first gold in men's curling since the 2014 Sochi Games, when they also beat Britain in the final with Jacobs as the skip. This is his first Olympics since --- he lost in the Canadian Olympic trials for 2018 and 2022. With its women's team having won bronze earlier, it was Canada's seventh gold and 14th medal overall in Olympic curling --- tops in both categories. "It means the world to me to see my teammates with a medal around their neck," Kennedy said. "I don't know if people will ever understand what we went through this week as a team -- what I put them through this week as a team. "I let my emotions get the best of me," Kennedy added. "I stood up for my teammates. I'll never back down from that. We moved on, we moved forward and we did something amazing and a weaker team would have fell flat on their face." The British men have still not won Olympic gold since the inaugural Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix. Mouat was off on the freeze and Canada chipped Britain out of the house for three in the ninth end. Canada's team also featured vice skip Kennedy, Brett Gallant, Ben Hebert and Tyler Tardi. Switzerland defeated Norway for bronze on Friday.

Canadian women take bronze Top-ranked Canada beat the United States for bronze in the women's competition earlier Saturday after being upset by Sweden in the semifinals. Rachel Homan's team won 10-7 to deny the American women their first medal in the event. The Canadians had to overcome a 1-3 start to round-robin play. "I'm really proud of our week and our fight," Homan said. "We were never giving up right to the end, pulling for each other and when things were hard we just pulled closer together and tried to figure out how to make the next one." Sweden will play Switzerland for gold on Sunday. ___ AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

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