CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — The gold medal sealed. The accusations of cheating overcome. It was time for Marc Kennedy to let loose.
So the curler at the center of one of the biggest scandals the sport has ever experienced leapt atop the boards lining the ice sheets and pumped his right fist as a wide smile flashed across his 44-year-old face.
Kennedy and his Canadian teammates brushed aside controversy and beat Britain for Olympic gold on Saturday at the Milan Cortina Games.
“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.”
Brad Jacobs’ team defeated Bruce Mouat’s all-Scottish squad 9-6 inside Cortina’s historic ice arena after a trying two weeks for the sport’s powerhouse.