Bruce Mouat curling team on Beijing silver and Milano Cortina 2026: "We're very united"

Bruce Mouat's rink won a silver medal at Beijing 2022 and claimed Team GB's first podium finish of the Games.

The men's curling team - comprising skip Mouat, Grant Hardie (third, vice-skip), Bobby Lammie (second), Hammy McMillan Jr. (lead) and alternate Ross Whyte - is proud of what they achieved in China.

Mouat and his viral magic hat came so close to a coveted gold medal, but were edged 5-4 by Niklas Edin's Sweden in a captivating final.

"It's quite a special moment for us. We obviously wanted to get Team GB their first medal," said Mouat.

Curling was Team GB's other reason for celebration as Eve Muirhead skipped the women's rink to gold on the last day of the Games.

Both Muirhead and Mouat's rinks are all-Scottish affairs and Lammie is hoping they can inspire curlers across Scotland and the UK.

"I think it's a great honour to be part of," he said. "Hopefully what we've achieved here, getting the medal, can just spur on the kind of environment in curling - not just in Scotland but across the UK - and hopefully get more people to participate and just open up more ice rinks across the whole UK, not just Scotland."

How COVID brought the team closer

"I think it shows that people are actually interested in curling," continues Lammie.

"Because obviously during the Olympics it's in the main media, but hopefully the people that have been watching it over the last week who have been getting into it can stick with it and hopefully watch more than just the Olympics - the Europeans, the World's, and all different types of competitions."

While it was a second Olympic event in six months without fans, alternate Whyte says that COVID restrictions and protocols actually brought the team closer together.

"It was expected to be a wee bit different but, for us, being our first Olympics, it obviously didn't feel too different," he said.

"We've had to kind of trust each other and the way we went about trying to stay away from COVID, that kind of brought us together and built a real trust there.

"So yeah, it's been a great event. And we couldn't ask for much better."

Team GB curling men's team: "We've got so much trust in each other"

In fairness, they were a pretty tight-knit bunch to begin with.

"I think that's what made us the team we are today," says McMillan.

"I mean, me and Grant are cousins, Bobby and Bruce have played with each other for... I don't know how many years now, right the way through juniors.

"We've got so much trust in each other. We know how each other tick and we know we can say things to each other other teams can't say, we don't hold any grudges.

"You know, we can be completely 100 per cent honest with each other and I think the fact that those two have curled together for so long, me and Grant curled together when we were juniors, the first couple of years in men's and we're cousins, so we know how each other tick.

"So I think that's what makes us who we are today."

It's fun too in the camp as they know each other inside out: Ross is the comedian and prankster, they say, Grant is the parent and best cook - "Keep them in check," he says.

They fight a little over who's the best dressed with Bobby maybe coming out a marginal winner. Hammy's the messy one and they take turns cleaning up after him.

Bobby has the worst taste in music, "Literally anything he's got on in the morning while he's in the shower is horrendous," they say, and they all agree that Bruce is most likely to go viral.

"Well," Ross adds, "me for doing something silly, Bruce for being Bruce Mouat."

Bruce Mouat rink curling inspirations: Family, Rhona Martin, Eve Muirhead, David Murdoch

For McMillan, curling inspiration came at home from his father, also Hammy, who skipped Scotland to 1999 World Championship glory before going to the Salt Lake City 2002 Games.

"I think it's why I'm curling today," says Junior.

"I was probably, I'll say... dragged around every ice rink in Scotland when he was competing. I used to love watching him on TV.

"I was quite young when he was winning, so to watch back some of those winning moments on YouTube... yeah, it certainly makes me want to be standing on the podiums, trying to achieve more, not just for me, but for these boys here, more medals."

For Hardie, GB's medal-winning skips have been a big inspiration with Rhona Howie, then Rhona Martin, winning gold at Salt Lake, and David Murdoch and Beijing gold medallist Eve Muirhead taking silver and bronze respectively at Sochi 2014.

Murdoch was the coach for both the men's and women's teams at Beijing 2022.

"I think looking back to Rhona Martin's gold... we were all quite young at the time, but still remember it like it was yesterday.

"And, you know, more recently, David Murdoch and Eve's success in 2014.

"We were at a stage where we thought this is a serious ambition and we could actually get there. So that inspired us to get here. And Dave's support while we've been here is a huge help and why we've managed to come home with a medal."

Bruce Mouat: "I'm really proud of how we went about it"

Hardie likes the fact that the pressure is now on for the Olympic silver medallists who were European champions in 2018 and 2021, and World Championship runners-up last year.

"It's an expectation we've put on ourselves," Hardie says.

"We've got to the stage where we know we're one of the best teams in the world and we expect to deliver at every tournament.

"And you know, the Olympics is obviously much bigger, but we're used to big events and, yes, really proud of how we all handled ourselves all week."

Skip Mouat says they'll take the Olympic experience and use it to fuel the fire - he's already thinking about April's World Curling Championships in Las Vegas.

"I think that the kind of pressure that we felt here was probably more than anything else in any other competition that we played before and I think that we handled it very well.

"As a team, we were very united the entire week and I wouldn't expect anything less from us.

"I am really proud of how we went about that and leading into a World Championship it would be great to be able to get there and to hopefully come away with the title this time. We've been close before, so we'll definitely lean on this experience.

"And yeah, I hope that we can finally achieve that."

Cortina Milano 2026 goal: "Stand on top of the podium"

Niklas Edin and Sweden have now beaten Mouat's men in the finals of the last World Championships and Olympic Games.

So is Sweden now their nemesis?

"I guess you could say that," laughs Lammie. But we've obviously won finals against them as well, the Europeans and the likes.

"They've had us at the Worlds and now at the Olympics. We'll be looking to get that one back I'm sure at some point, hopefully down the road.

"But we just focus on ourselves, to be honest, and try and always be there at the end of the week. And whoever's there we'll be ready to go."

McMillan makes it clear that they're already thinking about the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games in four years' time.

"I think that was always part of the plan for us as well," he says. "We put a team together four or five years ago now, in summer 2017. Our goal was to get to the Olympics and in the last 18 months we realised that, no, we could be standing on top of that podium.

"And so I think coming away with a silver medal we'll look back and be proud. But now it's going to spur us on to Milano Cortina and this time stand on top of the podium."