Curling's only scandal: How 'Broomgate' changed the game forever

Curling is a sport marked more by its politeness than its competitiveness, but in 2015, a seemingly simple change to a piece of equipment set off an uproar that still cuts deep for many in the sport.

It was called Broomgate, and as a competitive curler, I found myself in the middle of it.

I was one of the first players on the World Curling Tour to use a Hardline broom, and I thought I knew just about everything there was to know about the story: A new broom company emerges on the scene and club curlers really like their brooms. They praise their lightness and the speed at which they can move the broom head, as it's made out of a material that reduces friction between the broom head and the ice. 

Competitive curlers like me start to use it. We really like it. It holds the rock straighter than ever before. It makes the rocks go further than we thought possible.

Elite curlers start to use it. Mike McEwen, who skipped one of the top teams in the world, has pretty much the best curling tour season we've ever seen.

Brad Gushue wonders what might happen if he tries a new sweeping technique with it: only using one sweeper instead of two. It turns out that with that technique, we can do anything. We can make the rocks curl. We can make them stay so straight it looks like they're backing up. Chaos ensues.

It's really curling's only scandal. There have been other blips on the radar, but this was the main thing. Broken friendships, intense rivalries, rumours of lawsuits between broom manufacturers and the sport's governing bodies, and it all led to, in the words of four-time world champion and 40-year curling veteran Glenn Howard, "the worst curling season of my entire career."

The strange part is, considering it is one of the most