By Aadi Nair
CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Canada’s men’s curling team channelled their fury at being labelled cheats into their quest for Olympic gold, skip Brad Jacobs said on Saturday after his team ended their tumultuous campaign standing on top of the podium.
Canada beat world champions Britain 9-6 in the final to win the country’s first men’s curling gold since 2014, despite being thrust into a media storm after Sweden accused them of cheating during a round-robin game.
A fired-up Jacobs pulled no punches in his post-game press conference, calling the allegations “outrageous”.
“I’ll guarantee you that only motivated us further to go out and prove to everyone that we’re the best team, and now (we’re) at the top of the podium, I would say the best team in the world,” he added.
“Canada and curling in Canada is special to us. It means a lot to us. Integrity means a lot to us. We wanted to go out there and prove everyone wrong and rise to the top of the podium.”
Much of the controversy centred on Canada’s Marc Kennedy following his expletive-laden response to the cheating accusations, with the 44-year-old saying his family received threats and abuse on social media.
Jacobs praised Kennedy’s mental fortitude, adding: “Marc’s mind is sealed. Most athletes, if they had to go through what Marc Kennedy went through, what we went through as a team here, it would have crippled them and it would have crumbled most teams.
“But Marc’s done a lot of self-improvement and just surrounded himself with us and the support that we gave him, his family gave him this week, our coaches.
“He is one tough fella to be able to block out all the noise and just go out and curl and curl his absolute best. We’re just so proud of him for everything that he was able to do this week and how he handled the whole situation.”
Jacobs, who also led Canada to gold at the Sochi Games in 2014, delivered a pointed parting shot to doubters, saying: “For anyone who called us cheaters … 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.”
(Reporting by Aadi Nair, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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