Set For A Clean Sweep?

Scotland’s men’s curling team are going for gold at the Winter Olympics

- Paul F Cockburn

SCOTLAND has produced many Olympic athletes down the decades but, for sheer consistency, it’shard to ignore the success of the country’s curling teams since the sport gained Olympic status in 1998.

With Great Britain consistently among the world’s top seven, much of the focus four years ago was on the women’s team, skippered by Eve Muirhead. Team Muirhead are expected to do well at the Winter Olympics at PyeongChang, South Korea, but there’s also renewed media interest in their male peers, Team Smith.

“Great Britain has always been a very good team,” says their coach Coach Viktor Kjell. “Maybe the difference this time, compared to other years, is that we’re sending a team who are a little bit younger. They might not have as much experience as another team might have had at this stage, but they’re super-hungry to do well. They absolutely deserve to be there.”

Team Smith consists of Kyle Smith and his brother Cammy, Kyle Waddell, and brothers Thomas and Glen Muirhead – the elder and younger siblings of women’s team skip Eve. Curling at this level appears very much a family affair. Does that ever lead to problems?