‘Double touch’ rule rocks conversation at university national curling championships

Amid controversy over the double-touch rule at the 2026 Olympics, the topic is being discussed at the U SPORTS national championships. Donovan Maess reports.

Curling has been thrust into the spotlight following a rules controversy at the Olympics in Cortina, Italy, sparking discussion among players around the world.

At issue is the “double touch” rule, which states that if a delivered stone is touched by a member of the delivering team between the near t-line and the far hog line, it must be removed from play.

The debate comes as thousands of stones are being thrown at this week’s U Sports and Canadian Collegiate Curling Championships in Regina.

University curlers CTV News spoke with say accidentally double-touching a stone is rare.

“I can’t say I have,” said Alberta Pandas second Rachel Jacques. “Sometimes your hand kind of grazes it and you don’t notice. So potentially — but I don’t know.”

“I don’t want to say yes, but you might get a finger drag once in a while,” said Laurier men’s lead Wyatt Wright.

“If I did, it’s probably not helping,” Regina Cougars men’s skip Carter Williamson joked. “I’d probably make it drastically worse.”

‘Spirt of Curling’

Much of curling’s rulebook is grounded in sportsmanship. The World Curling rulebook itself is titled The Spirit of Curling, underscoring the game’s emphasis on integrity and fair play.

The double-touch infraction is outlined in Curling Canada’s rules under Section 9, which addresses “touched moving stones.”

The rulebook states: “A stone re-touched by the hand after release, but re-touched before the hog line, is not a violation.”

Earlier this week in Olympic competition, Canadian third Marc Kennedy was accused by Team Sweden of making contact with a delivered stone past the allowable point. A heated exchange followed, igniting debate within the curling community worldwide.

In response, World Curling officials announced they would more closely monitor competition, stationing umpires at each hog line for every draw.

The controversy continued days later after Canada’s Rachel Homan and Britain’s Bobby Lammie each had stones removed from play for similar violations.

Following a meeting with Olympic teams, World Curling walked back its decision to monitor each game.

“I probably even have done it intentionally a time or two before,” Regina Cougars men’s curling coach Garret Springer admitted. “But I don’t think it’s anything anyone means to do.”

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Springer says most curlers aren’t paying attention to their release in the moment.

“I’m sure when you’re in the zone and you’re throwing like that, you don’t [notice],” he said. “If I throw [my shot] well, I don’t pay any attention to what my hand’s doing. Everybody’s thrown a rock bad and wanted to touch it again and you do.”

University of Alberta Pandas curling coach Jessica Amundson is a 2012 Scotties Tournament of Hearts champion.

Although she says she’s never double touched a rock, she said it is possible.

“Your hand comes off [the rock] really gently, sometimes aggressively,” said Amundson.

Coaching mentality

Both Amundson and Springer say teaching the double touch out of curlers is something they have never thought of.

“It’s not even a discussion for us,” Amundson told CTV News. “It could have been an accident, it could have been, I don’t know. But it’s not something we think about.”

“I haven’t been telling [my players] to watch out for it,” added Springer. “I have my eyes on it and they’re all good enough, innocent enough and know enough about the game to keep an eye open. If they see something, they’ll bring it up but I think it’s better to just focus on what we’re doing out and not worry about the other team.”

Players also say it is not a focus to eagle eye other players on the ice.

“It doesn’t really matter to me what the opponent’s doing as long as we’re doing what we should be doing. It’s just having that trust in your opponent,” Jacques said.

“I don’t think you’re going to affect [the rock] too much. Maybe a little bit line wise, but I was I don’t see it doing much,” added Wright.

“If anything, it might add a little bit more weight but I’ll take off that curl at the same time,” explained Cougars women’s skip Chloe Johnston.

Johnston says if she ever did notice an infraction, she brings it up with her own team first.

“Sometimes there’s kind of an issue between teams and sometimes it gets a little heated,” she added. “Most of the time, if we see it multiple times, I’ve talked to an umpire but I’ve never really had to deal with it.”

Something to talk about

Curlers at the championships say they have been bombarded with texts and social media as curling has grabbed international attention.

Wright says his roommates have been reaching out to him.

“They’ll send me clips and kind of get my take on it, he said. “I mean, they say ‘any publicity has got publicity,’ and I see lots of people talking about it. People who weren’t necessarily into [curling] before. So it’s nice to see more people interested in the sport for sure.”

“People I know for a fact don’t care about curling are texting me asking what’s going on at the Olympics and whatnot. So I think that’s cool,” said Williamson.

Although, Canada’s profane-ridden exchange may not have been as supported.

“Maybe it doesn’t look the best for Canada but it’s bringing a ton of attention to the sport,” said Amundson. “It’s making people excited and interested.”

“It’s certainly given curling a center stage position, which is kind of fun to see,” added Springer.

Still, the online attention and growing of the sport is welcomed.

“A ton of my friends are saying, ‘my TikToks blowing up with curling,” Amundson said. “There’s memes with curling, people are reposting things.”

“If there’s more people who will sign up to curl next year because of this, I’m all for it. We need more curlers around the city and the whole country for that matter,” said Williamson.

“It’s nice everyone’s talking about curling,” Johnston said. “I love seeing the memes too, I think it’s hilarious. We really enjoyed it.”

-With files from Craig Ellingson, Jeremy Thompson and Garrett Barry