GB skip Bruce Mouat: Following in the footsteps of Tom Daley to inspire a nation

“I don’t know if I truly appreciate what’s about to happen,” said Great Britain's curling star Bruce Mouat as he braces for the imminent spotlight that will fall on him come the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.

After topping last year with gold in December's European Curling Championships the 27-year-old struggles to hide the pride laced in his voice when talking about the last 12 months. His stratospheric 2021 ended with victory over current PyeongChang 2018 silver medallist and familiar rival Niklas Edin of Sweden and he couldn't help beam as he acknowledged his results:

“I’m over the moon to be in form leading into February,” said Mouat to Olympics.com. “It really does cement our spot in the top teams in the world, and it’s such an exciting place to be leading up to the Olympics.”

To best understand the Scot's frenetic energy about what's coming there are three things you need to know.

The first is that Britain has always shown an intense curiosity for curling at the Olympics. The frantic sweeping, the manic yells, Rhona Martin's 'stone of destiny' – there isn’t one element of the sport that doesn't have Britons gripped.

The second, requires a quick look at the gap between Team GB’s success in the Summer Games and its medal count in the winter editions. Although the disparity isn’t surprising given lack of geographical features lending themselves to snow and ice sports, when it comes to Olympic winter champions there aren’t all that many.

The third and final thing to note, is that when the man from Stirling arrives for the Games in the Chinese capital next month, he will do so as a veritable double medal threat.

In addition to his European crown Mouat has also clinched: silver at the men’s World Championships with his rink of Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr., gold in the mixed doubles World Championships alongside Jen Dodds and banked a hat-trick of Grand Slam of Curling titles.

That Britain will have in the world ranked number one two shots at Olympic glory in one of their favourite sports is the perfect recipe for anticipation, pressure, and success and Mouat knows it.

Bruce Mouat: Beijing 2022 and fending off the favourites

Getting the call-up to represent Team GB at Beijing 2022 was for Mouat, the realisation of lifelong wish:

“I have obviously dreamt of going to an Olympics for a long, long, long time,” the skip shared. “But to actually be getting to the point where we’re seen as a really good medal opportunity, not only in the men’s game but also potentially in mixed doubles, it is just so exciting. I’m trying to keep my head out of the clouds.”

While the Briton may still be on his way back down to earth following last year’s sporting highs, waiting for him to land are his Olympic rivals.

Team Mouat, though never having been to a Games, have increasingly found themselves being singled out by other countries as the ones to beat and it’s something the mixed doubles world champion can’t help finding amusing:

“I mean obviously it’s very humbling to be told that,” he began, “but again I think it’s funny because a lot of people try and almost push off that other teams are favourite, so it doesn’t put as much pressure on themselves.

“I feel that the Canadians are maybe doing that wee bit too to us, and maybe Niklas as well.”

Switching his smile for the cool composure he often flashes at clutch moments on the ice, Mouat seemed unfazed by his opponents’ gesturing:

“We’re very assured of ourselves and our abilities and leading into the Olympics we’ll obviously be trying to play as good as we did at the Euros, if not better.”

MORE: Beijing 2022 Curling schedule

Bruce Mouat on future plans

When Olympic diver Tom Daley struck gold at Tokyo 2020, in 2021 the world cried in delight.

From his debut at Beijing 2008 his 13-year-long Olympic journey has been one closely followed. When Daley suddenly lost his father aged just 17 a nation mourned. Later, when he publicly came out as gay he was globally celebrated.

For Mouat, who is also an out and proud athlete, seeing Daley's example both in and out of the plunge pool has been a great source of personal inspiration:

"Seeing an open athlete, and having success as well, it definitely encouraged me to live my authentically and be proud of who I am," said the curler. "It proved to me that I can achieve great things in sport."

Now, as we shift from the Summer Games to the Winter Olympics, Mouat wants to take on mantle and repeat Daley's feat:

"I think this is just such an exciting time for me to replicate what Tom has done. As much as I've never met him personally, it's very nice for me to see an open gay man in Britain having so much success in his sport."

Knowing well the positive impact of having an example to follow in both your professional and personal life, in addition to medalling, the Scot also counts inspiring others as one of his ambitions for Beijing:

“As much as I want to go there and participate for my own kind of selfish want of being an Olympic champion, I also want to encourage people to take up sport and curling in particular. I fell in love with it at a young age, and I really do think that it’s helped me develop in my personal life as well.

Bruce Mouat: lockdown learnings and discovering new ways to edge out the best

As the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world elite athletes, just like every day people, were forced to adapt to their changed circumstances.

For Team Mouat lockdown led to arguably the rink’s most productive period as they pushed to advance their game within the parameters of what was then possible.

The number one priority for Mouat at the time was ensuring symmetry between everyone’s throws. By guaranteeing that he, Hardie, Lammie and McMillan all throw the same way a degree of unpredictability is removed from the equation when skipping the game.

As the curlers got to work, they soon found themselves rotating the stone more and when they got to finally apply their learnings in competition their new technique became a big talking point amongst their opposition:

“Curling is a sport that can change within a centimetre. So, if we miss a shot by a centimetre, it can change drastically from shot to shot. What we tried to do was just to have the same throws as consistent as possible for all four of us. From that, that’s where the more rotation came in,” explained Mouat.

“From what we saw over lockdown, it just kind of helped us to make a lot more shots that were maybe struggling to beforehand where we weren’t getting as much rotation on the stone.

“Then obviously we went to the World Championships where the Canadians started to look at it and were perplexed by what we were doing.”

It wasn’t the only thing that had tongues wagging.

The mixed doubles world champ also lifted the lid on how he and his team worked with data to improve their decision-making in matches. It’s something that he confesses, has paid dividends:

“We decided to look back at games and study the games and really try and think about what kind of situation we would play a different shot, and those numbers have now come in and help us make those decisions.

“We have a lot of statistics around what kind of shot we want to be playing and at what point in the game we want to be playing those shots. So, there is a lot of data that we try and take in, it’s maybe too much almost to take in for each team.”

Bruce Mouat: hunting that golden winning feeling

When asked what his first Olympic memory was Mouat didn’t hesitate in his response:

“Watching Dame Kelly Holmes win her two medals,” the curler replied. “I actually think I remember the second medal more because it was a great thing to witness.

“It just cemented in my head that’s what I wanted to do at the point. I was 10 years old, and I was like, ‘Well, I want to be an Olympian because that looks amazing.'”

Mouat’s empathy for victorious Olympians is also obvious when he also talks about seeing the relief in the faces of medal winners: “It kind of makes me want to do it even more because I know how hard we have to work to get there.”

The task before the newly crowned European champion, his rink and Dodds at Beijing will be ending Britain’s 20-year-long gold medal drought. The nation’s last success was at Sochi 2014 when Eve Muirhead and David Murdoch brought home bronze and silver respectively.

The graft it will take to achieve that, says the Olympic debutant, is not something everyone will understand, which also goes someway to appreciating why he holds all Olympians in such high regard.

"I always describe it as like an iceberg. People always see 20 percent of what you do, so they never really consider maybe the 70 or 80 percent that you do in the background," explained Mouat. "People see the great 20 percent when maybe you're in the media or if you've won medals, but they don't really understand how hard we have to work to get there."

As for his own ‘hard work’ Mouat finalised his preparations for Beijing in the best possible way after he and Dodds secured their seventh successive victory in the British Curling Mixed Doubles competition earlier this month (January 5).

Next up, is a flight to the Chinese capital where the rest of world awaits.

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