What is 'burning rocks'? Curling controversy as Team China embroiled in cheating accusations at World Championship
Updated 07/04/2025 at 17:06 GMT+1
The World Curling Championship was embroiled in controversy after Team China were accused of cheating in their 8-7 quarter-final victory over Team Norway. Footage online has circulated appearing to show China lead Zhichao Li's broom touching a stone to "burn a rock" - a curling term for making contact with the stone so as to deliberately manipulate its path. China denied the accusations.
Watch: Can you spot it? Controversy as China accused of intentionally 'burning rocks'
Video credit: TNT Sports
The World Curling Championship was embroiled in controversy after Team China were accused of cheating in their qualification play-off with Team Norway.
During China's 8-7 victory over Norway, footage circulated online of China lead Zhichao Li's broom appearing to "burn a rock" - a curling term for making contact with a stone.
CBS reporter Devin Heroux shared a video of the alleged act on X, formerly Twitter, which he believes is evidence of "egregious" and "deliberate" cheating from China.
So here is a breakdown of what actually happened.
What is 'burning rocks', exactly?
Burning rocks is a practice that sees a player intentionally hit the curling stone with their broom.
So, in this case, Li has been accused of deliberately making contact with his stone just before it arrived in the House.
This would be done to manipulate the path of the stone.
Did it work?
Yes. The stone in question had its trajectory altered just before it was about to hit a guard. However, it went on to merely push another Norway stone into the house.
Norway's Magnus Ramsfjell subsequently called a technical timeout to discuss the issue. While he felt the rock was burned, he agreed to let the stone remain on the sheet rather than have it removed.
Moreover, the umpire did not intervene since the athletes agreed to play on. Video replay is not used in curling.
China beat Norway 8-7, but lost their semi-final against Switzerland 7-3.
After the semi-final defeat, China skipper Xu Xiaoming and coach Weidong Tan - who served as interpreter - addressed the controversy, insisting that the Chinese team did not feel the broom made contact with the rock.
China went on to be dispatched 11-2 in the bronze medal match by Canada.
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What has World Curling said?
A World Curling spokesperson said the organisation is "aware of the situation", but noted Norway did not make a complaint upon deciding to continue playing.
They told Heroux: "We are aware of the situation. The Norway team called a technical time-out at the time to discuss the issue within the teams, and decided to let things stand and continue the game. There has been no other complaint from Norway regarding this.
"The umpires step in when they see a situation, but video replay is not allowed at curling as it is not fairly distributed across every game in the competition."
What have Norway said?
Former Olympic champion and current secretary general of the Norwegian Curling Association, Pal Trulsen, told Eurosport Norway: "This feels very unfair. Players get a warning if they are wearing the wrong clothes, so when this hasn't been spotted, it's strange."
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