Bruce Mouat: Great Britain’s curling hope teases the man behind the icy veneer

When athletes are in the throes of competition, they often have a bit of ‘game-face’ and**, Great Britain’s** rising curling star Bruce Mouat is no exception.

The 2021 mixed doubles world champion’s steely gaze is often on display as he works hard to skip his team to victory.

“My demeanour’s very different on the ice to off it,” the 27-year-old told Eurosport ahead of the 2021 European Curling Championships.

“But when I’m on the ice you’ll see that I’ve got a bit of a poker face and I don’t tend to show much emotion.”

The art of expressive concealment is key in a sport like curling, which has often been likened to chess for the way it demands cunning and guile. In 2021, Mouat has been more than rewarded for his ability to hide his hand.

A breakthrough year has seen the Scot and his rink of: Grant Hardie (third), Bobby Lammie (second), and Hammy McMillan Jr. (lead) clinch several major curling titles including men's world championship silver and two Grand Slam of Curling crowns.

It’s why the ‘iceman’ and his team are already negotiating being tipped as favourites for the men’s gold at the Winter Olympics.

But to prove Mouat hasn’t just got ice running through his veins, as he himself also maintains, here are a couple of examples of the more ‘human side’ of the Scottish skip.

Bruce Mouat: The Man of Steel but nervous against all opponents

Looks can always be deceiving, and Mouat perhaps knows this better than anyone.

While the skip doesn’t show a lot of emotion when he goes toe-to-toe with the world’s curling best, he is the first to admit that underneath his competitive cover of calm he certainly feels the heat:

When asked in a World Curling social media Q&A which skip he fears the most he laughs as he admits, “It would be hard to name one because I’m nervous to play nearly every time I go onto the ice!”

“At the worlds this year I was really nervous most of the time I was going on the ice regardless of who I was playing,” the Scot confessed before singling out two-time Olympic medallist Niklas Edin of Sweden as a great rival.

“Niklas Edin is always a really good skip to play against. You know that he’s not going to make many tactical errors and he’s going to make nearly every single shot he plays.”

After then also naming Canadian Brendan Bottcher and Switzerland's Olympic bronze medallist Peter de Cruz, the young curler resolved to announce: “You could list them all and I was nervous to play them all!"

Bruce Mouat: an artful prankster

As well as not quite being as detached as he may seem, Mouat is also much more easy-going away from the rink.

To enable professional sports to continue during the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, much of the world turned to “isolation bubbles” to enable events to go ahead safely and securely.

The Calgary curling bubble was the sport’s iteration of a bio-secure space.

Across the season several renowned curling bonspiels were hosted by the bubble including Tim Hortons Brier, the women and men’s world championships and Grand Slam of Curling events.

For international rinks such as Team Mouat seeing through the season ahead of an Olympic year was vital but it also meant spending weeks away from home, separated from friends and family.

While it was tough, it did have the upside of bringing teams even closer together and, Mouat the prankster was more than ready to capitalise on this.

Answering the Q&A with World Curling the man from Stirling shared how he would playfully torment his lead, Hammy:

“When we were in the Calgary bubble our rooms were right next door to each other and we shared a joining door,” Mouat began to explain

“So one night I snuck through into his room, and I got a really good scare.”

Beware the competitor on the ice but beware too his fun side!