Life changing

Going for gold: how you’re boosting Team GB’s curling team

The Winter Olympics and Paralympics are finally here and Team GB are braving the ice and snow to ski, skate and skeleton for gold, but when it comes to curling, there is only one home nation worth talking about, and that’s Scotland.

Last year Scotland opened its first dedicated curling facility with funding support from The National Lottery through sportscotland. The Peak at Sterling Sports Village, is helping to develop the grassroots side of the game while providing outstanding coaching and support programmes to the athletes who represent Great Britain.

Looking to the future

This year, Team GB have sent an all-Scottish curling team to compete at the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, and the new facility has been vital in supporting the GB curling team with their training.

Eve Muirhead, Team GB’s women’s curling captain, believes the new facility gives the British Curling programme a real edge over rival nations.

“I am really impressed with the new Academy and it has made our lives easier and I know it has made the coaches’ lives easier as well," she said.

“Video will be available so that you can analyse your game right down to the tiniest margins. If anyone has a facility like that I don’t know what makes it better and I can’t see anyone beating this.

“It’s fantastic turning up to training knowing that you have this facility on your doorstep and it has made a big difference to us already.”

Home of curling

It’s not just our Olympians and Paralympians that are benefitting from these incredible new facilities. Thanks to you, the local community are also able to enjoy the Academy, Mike Whittingham, performance director at the sportscotland Institute of Sport, explains:

"The sport now has a terrific opportunity to attract new grassroots curlers while, simultaneously, being a dedicated hub for our performance athletes can help them continue to achieve excellent results on the world stage.

“The technology in the National Curling Academy is cutting-edge and a welcome addition to our Olympic and Paralympic training programmes.”

The National Curling Academy was created in partnership with Stirling Council and Active Stirling, as well as British Curling.

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