Scotland curling skip Rebecca Morrison embracing 2023 World Championship challenge: “It's anyone's game on the day”
In an exclusive interview with Olympics.com, the 26-year-old curler explained why she and her team are feeling confident ahead of the World Champs in Sandviken, Sweden, how she was once told curling 'wasn't for her' and why she won't be taking any curling advice from her mum.
Curling
Calm and collected.
That’s the reading on the mood barometer according to Scotland’s newest curling skip Rebecca Morrison ahead of the World’s Women Curling Championships in Sandviken, Sweden beginning on Saturday, 18 March.
“What’s the worst that can happen?” the 26-year-old says to Olympics.com in an exclusive interview ahead of the showdown.
Waiting for Morrison and her team, made up of lead Sophie Jackson, second Sophie Sinclair, and third Gina Aitken, will be 12 of the world’s best women’s teams in world curling including a host of European, Olympic, and previous world medallists.
The competition for the world crown is as wide open as ever and for a new-look Team Scotland taking its tentative first steps at the beginning of a new Olympic cycle, anonymity is something they’re quietly relishing.
But there’s also another reason behind Morrison’s unbridled approach heading into this year’s event.
Last year, poised to make her own international debut representing the Saltire, Morrison tested positive for COVID-19 on her arrival in Canada. As the only member of her team to be infected, she isolated herself and stayed in hope that she would make it onto the ice eventually, even if it would be halfway through the tournament.
A few days later, when other members of the team also began returning positive tests Scotland was forced to withdraw and the skip's dreams of making it on to the international stage were put on hold.
“It was really tough,” Morrison says looking back.
“I remember I held out a little bit of hope at the time that I was going to get onto the ice for the second half of the championship. And to me at that point, results didn't matter. I just wanted to be on the ice and play. Then, when we had to pull out as a whole, it was really difficult for everyone.
“I did see the arena and stuff had a wee cry when I saw it. I was that emotional.”
With the world today in a much different state than it was, Team Morrison will now get a second crack at the showpiece event having earned a spot by winning last month’s Scottish championships.
Getting to go again just one year after having come so close is not only a relief for the curler from Aberdeen, who explains the uncertainty of whether they would ever get the chance to compete there again was part of the emotional turmoil that followed their withdrawal, but also brings with it a new outlook.
Last November, Morrison and her team were chosen to represent Scotland at the 2022 European Championships in Oestersund, Sweden.
The unfancied rink walked away from the contest with a bronze, after defeating an Italy team skipped by Beijing 2022 Olympic mixed doubles champion Stefania Constantini 9-5 in the third-place play-off, and now the Scots are hungry for more.
“It was my first medal on the international stage, so I was just absolutely buzzing to come away with that. And I think it's given us a lot of confidence as a team,” Morrison explains. “If we can achieve that at this point, what could we achieve in three years’ time?
“I think what we have to take from the Europeans is just because a team is ranked higher than you, and maybe a little bit better than you on the world stage, it doesn't mean that you can't have your game against them and go out there and beat them. With curling, it's anyone's game on the day.
“I think we have the potential and the ability in us to take some of these big teams down as long as we play well on the day and when it counts.”
Rebecca Morrison: Curling in the early years "A lot of people would say it wasn't for me"
If it sounds like Morrison has a taste for defying expectations then it’s because it's something well ingrained in the Scot.
Growing up in Aberdeen, Morrison developed a passion for winter activities: Snowboarding, skiing, and even ice skating were all sports she practised as a child and that fuelled her competitive spirit.
It wasn’t until one day while driving past the recently opened Curl Aberdeen sports complex in 2004 that curling came onto Morrison’s radar. The then eight-year-old asked her mum if she could have a go.
It got off to a rocky start.
“I was terrible for years,” Morrison says with a dash of brutal honesty.
“In my first few years, I could not get a stone down the ice. I was so small the curling stone used to weigh more than me when I started. I was hopeless. A lot of people would say it wasn't for me.”
Determined to keep going, the resolute curler eventually found her commitment paying off and the slow starter then suddenly began making great strides.
“I always wanted to get to the Olympics one day, and that's just driven me: the big picture” - Rebecca Morrison
“I started catching up to people and that's very motivational. When you start catching up with the people that are above you.”
In 2019, eager to show national selectors that she was serious about her commitment to curling, Morrison moved south of her hometown in Aberdeen to be closer to the National Curling Academy. It was a decision that ultimately worked out for the best with the Scot selected for the podium potential programme.
She was then able to curl full-time.
Rebecca Morrison on curling after Eve Muirhead: "It's a fresh start for Scottish curling"
When Morrison, Jackson, Sinclair, and Aitken take to the ice at Göransson Arena, there will be a sense that as they do so, the changing of the guard will officially be complete.
While the post-Eve Muirhead era technically began in August last year when Team GB's Beijing 2022 Olympic gold medal-winning skip announced her retirement, this year’s world championships will mark the first time the event has happened since she stepped away.
Having made an appearance at nine of the last 12 editions of the tournament, Muirhead’s absence will not go unnoticed, and Morrison is under no illusions that people will compare the two.
“They’re big boots to fill,” she says reflecting on her new role. “Obviously, Eve [Muirhead] is one-of-a-kind in curling.
“Eve was at the Olympics at age 19, and that's just a very rare occurrence. I think it's going to be very rare that you see someone like Eve come along.
“I'm on that path at a later age and it's more like what you see often from other countries. It's very common for teams our age to have not had as much experience at this age as Eve did. I just have to see it as: yes, I definitely have not achieved her resume at the age that she had but everyone's journey is different.
“We're taking our cycle as completely different. It's a fresh start for Scottish curling and we'll just take it as that.”
While their trajectories may now look a little different, one thing Morrison is hoping is she’ll be able to achieve similar levels of success as Muirhead.
With the winter Olympiad now underway ahead of Milano-Cortina 2026 representing Great Britain at the Games is certainly on the Scot’s mind but she’s keen to underline she’s not thinking too far ahead.
“Sometimes when I think about the Olympics, it doesn't feel real that that's like our path right now. It's a little crazy to me.
“I think the thing for us is this current year that we're in doesn't count towards the Olympics, but this time next year, the World Championships we’ll be going for points that qualify for the Olympics. So, the first goal really is to just get enough points to actually qualify Great Britain for the Olympics: that's the number one priority.”
Aware of how critical next year’s worlds will be, Morrison and her team know putting in a strong performance in Sweden will be an important step in the Winter Olympic build-up.
And they won't be doing it alone.
Also making the trip over will be a host of Scottish supporters including Morrison's mum, who the curler says has been instrumental to her journey.
From financially supporting her in 2019 when she made the key move away from home to pursue her Olympic aspirations, to even taking up curling after her daughter, Morrison underlined her mum's involvement in getting her to where she is now:
"She's on board with the dream as much as I am. She's very supportive and has actually helped me get here so much just through like a bit of financial support, especially before I actually became a full-time curler.
_"_I love it when she comes out to these competitions because whatever happens it's good memories and you get to share those whether you're having a tough time and it's just nice to have that family support."
While Morrison can't wait to hear the cheers from the stands when she gets Scotland's campaign underway, one thing she says she won't be accepting from her mum will be any curling advice:
"She might say the occasional comment, but she is pretty good. I think she's learnt that I don't need to hear it because if she's saying it, I know it!"