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A curling team that included 2014 Olympic champion Ryan Fry was kicked out of a bonspiel in Alberta over the weekend for being too drunk.
The team, skipped by Jamie Koe, was tossed from the Red Deer Curling Classic on Saturday night.
Organizers gave the reason of unsportsmanlike behaviour resulting from excessive drinking, most of which seemed to centre around Koe and Fry.
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"They were upstairs in our lounge beforehand and everything kind of seemed normal I guess," Wade Thurber, manager of the Red Deer Curling Centre, said on Monday.
"Our bar staff eventually cut them off and then it was time for them to go curl. That was probably the unfortunate thing was they had to go curl."
While Koe was too drunk to play and decided to sit out of their team’s Saturday night game, Fry had some different issues.
Thurber says the other two members of the four-man rink, Chris Schille and D.J. Kidby, tried to get Fry to focus on the game, but were unsuccessful.
"On the ice, he broke three brooms, Thurber said. "There was of course foul language, and a little bit of disruption with the sheets beside them."
The team, that was playing shorthanded without Koe, ended up losing 10-5 to a rink skipped by Kody Hartung and the teams shook hands after seven ends.
Their final game on Sunday was declared a forfeit after they were ejected from the bonspiel.On Monday, Curling Canada issued a statement courtesy of Fry, who said he wanted to sincerely apologize to fans, participants and organizers.
"I came to the event to play and enjoy the sport, but a bad lapse in judgement affected the experience for others,” it said.
“My actions were truly disrespectful and embarrassing — the committee was right to disqualify us from play.
Koe also issued a statement saying virtually the same thing, although he added that “although I removed myself from the last game before it started, the actions from the team led to our disqualification.”
Fry normally plays on a team with Brad Jacobs, E.J. Harnden and Ryan Harnden, who won the Tim Hortons Brier in 2013 along with their Olympic gold medal in 2014.
Jacobs said the team was all very disappointed in Fry’s actions, but they’re going to handle it as a team.
“We in no way support that type of behaviour, whether it’s displayed on or off the ice. It’s absolutely unacceptable. We’ve shared that with Ryan. Really at this point, we’re just taking the necessary steps to handle it internally and that’s really where we’re at. So nothing more to add."
The tournament will finish up today in Red Deer.
With files from the Canadian Press.
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