‘We punch above our weight’: GB curlers aim for yet more Olympic glory

Team GB took home two curling medals from Beijing 2022 and with Olympic champion-turned-chef de mission Eve Muirhead in their corner, they’re back for more

Mili Smith, Hailey Duff, Jennifer Dodds, Vicky Wright and Eve Muirhead won gold for Team GB in 2022 (Getty)

Four years ago, athletes arrived in Beijing for a Winter Olympics unlike any other. Not only was it held in subdued circumstances, under the grim shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic, it also proved a damp squib on the sporting front. Team GB came away with just two medals – secured in the final two days of the Games – a far cry from the record five won at the previous two editions.

Curling was one of the few British success stories. Bruce Mouat’s men’s rink narrowly missed out in the gold medal match to Sweden, while Eve Muirhead’s women’s rink beat Japan to become Olympic champions.

Four years on, Team GB are in a much better place, with medal potential across a wide range of sports and an ambitious target of four to eight medals set by UK Sport. But curling remains one of its top hopes, with medal potential in all three disciplines: men’s, women’s, and mixed doubles.

Mixed doubles pairing Mouat and Jennifer Dodds are former world champions in the discipline and were silver medallists last year, while Mouat’s men’s squad have held the No 1 ranking for more than a year and have won two world and two European titles since Beijing.

Dodds is the only member of the victorious Olympic women’s team returning, this time with Rebecca Morrison leading the quartet, which is completed by Sophie Jackson, Sophie Sinclair, and alternate Fay Henderson.

The Scot tells The Independent that having that depth of Games experience has helped her approach this time around and allowed her to mentor her teammates, while the general atmosphere heading to Milano Cortina is “a lot more calm” without the stress of avoiding catching Covid.

She says: “I don’t think I’ve ever been as nervous as I was in game one in Beijing, but it’s recognising that and being like, it’s okay to be nervous. It’s channelling that excitement side of being nervous, and just to enjoy the experience. We started playing curling because we love the sport and you shouldn’t forget that even if you’re at the Olympics. We always say you play your best when you’re enjoying it, having a laugh, and that should be no different at the Olympics.

“I know that sounds very bizarre when it’s such a competitive environment! At the end of the day, it’s still a game of curling, yes, a very different environment and stage, but we’ve done this a thousand times, and we know what works for us. So it’s that cliche of going back to the processes.”

Dodds is the only returning member of the victorious Beijing squad, who defeated Japan 10-3 in the gold medal match (Getty)

Muirhead, Dodds’ former teammate and now Team GB’s chef de mission, stops short of guaranteeing medals but is similarly optimistic about Britain’s chances. She tells The Independent: “Bruce and the boys are world No 1 just now, they’ve won a couple of grand slams this season. Those boys are definitely in form, that’s for sure.

“Mixed doubles wise, Jen and Bruce, they’re not short of experience. [The women’s rink] have had a good season, of course four of them are going to be first-time Olympians, so I think it’s a case of leaning on Jen and getting a bit of her experience and expertise. I think in curling in general we’re in a very strong spot.”

Dodds, who plays third, sees both her own presence and Muirhead’s as an added weapon in their arsenal.

“For me, obviously it’s a different position to be in,” the 34-year-old says. “I think it’s always useful having someone in a team that has been there before. We had Eve last time, so we could ask for advice from her, and we have that again as she’s chef de mission this time. I think that’s a real strength for Team GB.”

She notes with a wry smile that “you had to wait for the last two days to get the medals” in Beijing, but says that rumblings of discontent around GB’s wider performance didn’t contribute to the pressure on her team’s shoulders. “We knew what we needed to do, from a personal point we obviously wanted to medal and win gold, but we knew what we needed to do in that process to get to that point. We kind of cancelled out all the external noise, and we just kept our bubble really small, really tight-knit.”

Silver medallists in 2022, Team Mouat are the heavy favourites for gold this time around (Getty)

The plan is similar this time around, although Dodds and Mouat face the extra challenge of dealing with a very intense schedule. The mixed doubles begins two days before the opening ceremony (this evening) and Dodds will have only a couple of days off across the entire 19-day competition.

But she says: “In my mind, the hard work’s done. We are in such a good position, physically and mentally, and myself and Bruce obviously did it four years ago, so we know what it’s going to feel like and what you have to put yourself through.

“It’s a very gruelling schedule, but that’s what we want, we want to play both disciplines. Downtime is very important: it’s how do you recharge, how do you energise yourself, and obviously, from the experience last time, you can tweak a couple of things to make it even better.”

With the mixed doubles final coming on day four of the Games and women’s snowboarding and freestyle skiing medals up for grabs the day before, hopefully it won’t take until the final weekend for GB to pick up some hardware this time.

Muirhead is positive both about the squad’s potential but also the impact it could have. She says: “I think the Winter Games kind of awakens all different parts of the country and people just get hooked to the TV for weeks. As a nation, we really punch above our weight in winter sports, and I think we’re going to continue to do that.”