After winning Team GB’s only medals at the 2022 Winter Olympics, the British Curling squad has provided itself the best possible chance to build on that success with a unique achievement in pre-qualifying to contest all five of the sport’s disciplines at next year’s Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
In a sport that has, since being introduced to the Olympics, developed to previously unimagined levels in terms of global competition, only Italy’s curlers – who qualify automatically as hosts – will join the British contingent in every starting line-up in the men’s, women’s and mixed doubles competitions at the 2026 Winter Olympics, as well as in both the team and mixed doubles events at the Winter Paralympics Milan-Cortina. 
That follows an exceptional series of performances over the past few months that has seen one team after another produce the results required to earn the qualifying points necessary with nothing having been guaranteed as 2025 began.
“Once again there is enormous pride in the performance of our players, coaches, staff and the whole British Curling family, as well as our partners who provide support and back-up, as we now switch our attention from qualifying to preparing for the goals that we build towards every four years,” said British Curling’s Chief Executive Nigel Holl.
“Our players were under huge pressure heading into their respective World Championships and their response to that offers enormous encouragement for the months ahead. You have of course ‘got to be in it to win it’!”
The sequence began with a fortnight at the World Wheelchair Championship in Stevenston when the Scotland players charged with earning the qualifying points first did what they had to in the team event, where Hugh Nibloe, Gary Smith, Austin McKenzie and Jo Butterfield, supported by alternate Keith Gray, endured a roller coaster campaign. 
With qualification based on performances over three World Championships, they had points in the bag from the previous two years to fall back on and, with 10 places available, duly did what was needed by finishing seventh in the standings.
Things were far more precarious for the new partnership of Nibloe and Charlotte McKenna when they entered the mixed doubles event the following week, with Scotland sitting 10th in the overall standings on the basis of the previous two years’ performances and only eight places available.
Things consequently looked bleak when, after two early wins, they lost back-to-back matches to Korea and Hungary and while they rallied brilliantly to reach the play-offs, so did their closest rivals for Paralympic places, Slovakia, Canada, Estonia and Japan.
In the final analysis, they had to reach the final of the event to ensure qualification and, while they ultimately had to settle for silver medals, the principal objective was achieved. 
No sooner had the Wheelchair World Championships concluded than Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson, accompanied by alternate Fay Henderson, were in action in Korea looking to ensure that Team GB would get the chance to defend the Olympic women’s title won by Dodds, Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Hailey Duff and Milli Smith in 2022.
That, too, was by no means a done deal, with qualification for the Olympics based on just two years’ World Championship performances and Scotland sitting in the eighth of the eight available pre-qualifying places on the basis of their 2024 performance.
The pressure of that responsibility made their performance in reaching the play-offs to finish in the sixth qualifying slot all the more impressive.
There was less Olympic jeopardy when Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, headed to Canada with alternate Kyle Waddell for the men’s World Championships. However, their feats on that trip will go down in history as they completed what was perhaps the greatest campaign in the sport’s history, not only reclaiming the World title they first won in 2023, but then becoming the first team to win four of the five Grand Slam titles in a single season.
Mouat and Dodds subsequently rounded things off with yet another appearance in a World Championship final, missing out on gold to Olympic Champions Italy, but like the men’s team, doing more than enough to ensure that Team GB would be represented in that mixed doubles discipline in Milan-Cortina too.
“It really was a relentless few weeks and while there is a deep sense of satisfaction in achieving something that has been done by no other country, we have to see what our teams have done this season as providing an opportunity, as much as valuing these successes in their own right, “ said Holl.
“In the Olympic disciplines, our women set the standard in Beijing when they came home with gold and, having come close to matching them by reaching the final, Team Mouat have taken the men’s game in this country to new heights in the past few years.”
Holl noted that it is not just the top line success that has been noteworthy, however.
“Among our objectives is to showcase our sport within the UK and provide our partners at Scottish Curling and English Curling, whose focus is on developing the grassroots, with the role models that can attract people to our sport,” he said.
“There is consequently a real sense of excitement within British Curling at the way the England teams that have been developed by our programme in the past couple of years, performed at the World Wheelchair Championships, finishing just behind Scotland in the team event and only just missing out on the play-offs in the mixed doubles. 
“That raises the very real prospect of English players forcing their way into contention for Paralympic places next year and we are looking forward to seeing intense competition for selection there as we choose one squad from two teams that finished in the top eight at the World Championships.
“The platform is clearly there for immediate success at next year’s Olympics too, but there is also plenty of evidence that the future is in good hands with the successes enjoyed at the World University Games, where British Curling programme athletes Robyn Munro and Orrin Carson won gold in the mixed doubles and at the World Junior Championships, where Team Carson won another medal.
“Maintaining this momentum has required a monumental effort from our team and whilst qualification is satisfying, I know the whole British Curling team is now focused on enabling our athletes to deliver when it counts – under the pressure of the Paralympic and Olympic spot light. Bring it on!”
British Curling major successes since winning gold and silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics:
2022:
Eve Muirhead and Bobby Lammie - World Mixed Doubles Champions
Team Mouat (Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan) - GSOC Players Championship winners
Scotland (Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell alternate) - European Men’s Champions
Scotland (Rebecca Morrison, Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair, Sophie Jackson, Hailey Duff alternate) – European Women’s Championship bronze
Scotland (James Craik, Angus Bryce, Scott Hyslop, Niall Ryder, Jack Carrick alternate) – World Junior Men’s Champions 
2023:
Great Britain (James Craik, Mark Watt, Angus Bryce, Blair Haswell, Jack Carrick alternate) - World University Games Men’s gold
Scotland (Gregor Ewan, Hugh Nibloe, Gary Logan, Jo Butterfield, Meggan Dawson-Farrell – World Wheelchair Curling Mixed Team bronze
Scotland (Fay Henderson, Robyn Munro, Holly Wilkie-Milne, Laura Watt, Amy Mitchell alternate) – World Junior Women’s Champions
Scotland (Orrin Carson, Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop, Charlie Gibb, Scott Hyslop alternate) World Junior Men’s Championship bronze
Scotland (Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell (alternate) – World Men’s Champions
2024:
Team Mouat (Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan) - GSOC Canadian Open champions 2023/24,
Scotland (Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell alternate) - European Men’s Championship silver
Team Morrison (Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds, Sophie Sinclair, Sophie Jackson, Fay Henderson (alternate) – European Women’s Championship bronze
Great Britain (Logan Carson, Tia Laurie, Archie Hyslop, Holly Burke) – Winter Youth Olympics Team gold
Great Britain (Callie Soutar and Ethan Brewster) – Winter Youth Olympics Mixed Doubles gold
Team Mouat - GSOC Canadian Open champions 2024/25
Team Mouat - GSOC Tour Challenge winners
Team Mouat - GSOC National winners 
2025:
GB Students (Robyn Munro and Orrin Carson) – World University Games Mixed Doubles gold
Team Whyte (Ross Whyte, Robin Brydone, Duncan McFadzean, Euan Kyle) - GSOC Masters champions
Scotland (Charlotte McKenna and Hugh Nibloe) – World Wheelchair Championships Mixed Doubles silver
Scotland (Orrin Carson, Logan Carson, Archie Hyslop, Charlie Gibb, Jake MacDonald alternate) – World Junior Curling Championships Men’s bronze
Scotland (Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan, Kyle Waddell (alternate) -- Men’s World Champions
Team Mouat - GSOC Players Championship winners
Jen Dodds and Bruce Mouat – World Mixed Doubles Championships silver
*(GSOC is Grand Slam of Curling)
Images: Anil Mungal-Grand Slam of Curling, Anil Mungal - British Curling, BUCS - Jack Hodgetts, World Curling.
