Bruce Mouat and Scotland ready to defend their title at the 2024 European Curling Championships
Mouat's team will have the chance to maintain their 100 per cent record at the competition in Lohja, Finland.
Curling
One of the biggest events in the curling calendar will get underway this weekend as the Kisakillio Sports Institute in Lohja, Finland plays host to the 2024 European Curling Championships.
Both the men's and women's championships will run concurrently at the same venue, with the top eight finishers in both competitions qualifying for the 2025 World Curling Championships. The world championships themselves represent an opportunity for teams to to secure quota spots for the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.
There is the small matter of a European crown on offer, too, and in the men's event there's no rink in better form than that of Team Mouat's.
Bruce Mouat's quest for a fifth European curling title
Since winning his first major international gold at the 2016 World Junior Championships, Scotland skip Bruce Mouat has steadily ascended the World Curling rankings, with Scotland currently ranked third overall behind reigning Olympic and world champions Sweden and Beijing 2022 bronze medallists Canada.
The 30-year-old, who is famed for playing with a baseball cap (the cap itself has a popular account on social media platform X), has enjoyed podium finishes at the world championships (gold in 2023, silver in 2021, bronze in 2018), world mixed doubles championship (2021) and the Olympic Games (silver at Beijing 2022), but has been especially successful at the European championships.
On his debut at the 2018 edition of the tournament, Mouat guided Scotland to a 7-2 round-robin record before going on to beat Italy's Joël Retornaz in the semi-finals and Niklas Eden's Sweden team—the defending world champions at the time—to win gold.
Mouat was absent from the Scottish group that finished third the following year but returned in 2021 (the 2020 European Championships were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic) to begin a streak of three consecutive European titles.
Should Mouat (and his rink of Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, and Hammy McMillan Jr.) triumph again in Lohja next week, he would become the first skip since Edin to claim four consecutive European titles.
The quartet is entering the competition in scintillating form. They became the first Scots to win the Baden Masters in August before defending the Euro Super Series title in Stirling, Scotland and on 10 November Mouat won his second consecutive Grand Slam of the season (the eighth of Mouat's career) at the Co-op Candian Open.
Despite his Grand Slam winning streak, Mouat and co. won't be expecting an easy slide to glory at the European championships.
Olympic champions Sweden, as well as Italy and Switzerland (the world number 4 and 5 sides, respectively), all pose credible threats to Scotland.
With a trophy and prestige on the line—not to mention a guaranteed spot at the world championships—the tournament should be a spectacle of elite curling skill.