Sweden wins curling world championships to avenge infamous 'double-touch' incident

Alexander Lindström, Simon Olofsson, Christoffer Sundgren, Rasmus Wranaa, Oskar Eriksson, and Niklas Edin celebrate the gold medal
Alexander Lindström, Simon Olofsson, Christoffer Sundgren, Rasmus Wranaa, Oskar Eriksson, and Niklas Edin celebrate the gold medal Credit: ČTK / AP / Tyler Tate

Sweden’s 40-year old Niklas Edin extended the record for world titles to eight in his career when he claimed yet another men’s world curling championship with a 9-6 win over Canada’s Matt Dunstone on Saturday to effectively rebound from a heated, controversial "double-touch" incident earlier in the year at the Winter Olympics.

During the 2026 Winter Olympics round-robin, Sweden's Oskar Eriksson accused Canadian third Mark Kennedy of "double-touching" (touching the stone after releasing it) in a heated match, which Canada won 8-6.

The exchange involved accusations of cheating, viral video evidence of the infraction, and expletives between players.

Sweden's Niklas Edin, after falling out of medal contention at the Olympics, rebounded to win his record eighth world title by defeating Canada's Matt Dunstone 9-6 in the 2026 World Men’s Curling Championship in Ogden, Utah.

Sweden came off an uncharacteristic 2-7 record at the Winter Olympics in February, but Edin, vice Oskar Eriksson, second Rasmus Wranaa, and lead Christoffer Sundgren recovered their form for the world championship.

It was Sweden's 13th title overall in the history of the World Men's Curling Championship.

Sweden held the last stone in the first end and took two as Edin nailed a raise take-out. Canada's Team Dunstone could only respond with one before Edin then claimed another two in the third.

The Canadians rebounded with two stones in the fifth after a blanked fourth, but Edin kept up his fine form with twos, and the teams traded deuces in the sixth, seventh, and eighth.

Dunstone then only managed one in the ninth to give the Swedes  a two-point lead with the hammer in the final end. Sweden scored one without throwing their last stone in the 10th to complete a 9–6 victory.

"We were very disappointed after the (Milano Cortina 2026) Olympics, so I feel we had a monkey on our backs going into this week. We had to prove to ourselves that we can still curl at a high level," Edin told World Curling of his eighth world title.

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