Scotland’s Team Mouat are aiming for a fifth title in six appearances at the Le Gruyère AOP European Curling Championships 2025, but are fully expecting to encounter the sort of challenge they will meet at this season’s Winter Olympics as they confront a powerful line-up in Finland over the coming week (22 - 29 November 2025).
In what was arguably the greatest season of curling by any team, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan won four of the five Grand Slam titles in 2024/25, as well as their second World Championship. 
While their defeat in the final of last year’s Euros, which they had won on every previous appearance, was consequently something of a surprise, it was a reminder of the depth of quality across the Continent, which contributes to making this event in Lohja an ideal form check ahead of the Olympics.
“It is always quite exciting with the history and the background of the championships and obviously we have a lot of good memories from the event,” said Mouat.
“It is also quite important in an Olympic season, because the championship has the exact same format.
“You play nine teams in the round robin and then hopefully you get to a semi and then a final, so it is always good to get a bit more experience in that format and there are a lot of really good teams here and it is going to test us and we are going to have to be playing well to get into the play-offs again.
“It’s interesting as the field this year looks pretty strong and we have played a lot of these European teams as they are in the Slams, but there is the odd occasion when we play some that haven’t been in the Slams, so it will be good to test our performances against them.
“Some of them will also be playing in the Olympic Qualifying Event coming up pretty soon, so you never know we might be playing them at the Olympics as well, so it is always important for us to really concentrate at these championships and make sure we are performing at our best when it counts.”
With his team having continued their winning ways this season, winning the last two Grand Slams including the first ever played outside Canada when they won in Nevada last month, the 31-year-old skip is happy with their form. 
“I think we have done a lot of really good things this season and some of the performances we have had at the Slams have been really good,” said Mouat.
“We are performing at a very high level again and coming away with some wins from tournaments so we feel like we are in a good space and generally we are very happy with where we are.”
In the women’s event, Team Morrison have medalled in two of the last three years and, with the champions of the past two seasons out of the running, following Team Tirinzoni’s shock loss at the Swiss Championships earlier in the year and while respectful of the field, they readily recognise the opportunity that presents itself as they head into a competition in which only Sweden’s Team Hasselborg comes in higher in the world rankings.
“It’s a big change with Team Tirinzoni not being at the European Champs and I think all teams will have their eyes on a medal with that being the case.
“We are obviously ranked number two in the event, so we would love to get to that final this week and better our bronze from last year,” said lead Sophie Jackson, who calls the shots for the Scottish quartet.
“Team Huerlimann are coming over as they won the Swiss Championships last season so we definitely won’t be underestimating them.
“They have been doing really well in the Tour events recently and obviously beat Teams Tirinzoni and Schwaller in that Swiss Championships, so I am sure they will be putting out some really strong performances.”
That description also applies to the way Jackson, along with Rebecca Morrison, Jen Dodds and Sophie Sinclair have performed as they have climbed the world rankings this season in working towards the Winter Olympics and they are entitled to be confident that they can upgrade the bronze medal won a year ago.
“We are feeling really good going into this event,” said Jackson.
“We got back into the Tier 1 events at the last Grand Slam and had some close games there, so the team is performing really well.
“We are ramping up towards the Olympics in February and this will just be another good stepping stone as the first test this season at a championship event, so we are looking forward to seeing how we can do and hopefully we can make the medal stages later in the week.”
Games get underway tomorrow – follow the results here.
Watch games here: The Curling Channel.
Team Mouat
Bruce Mouat (Skip)
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
Kyle Waddell (alternate)
Team Morrison
Rebecca Morrison
Jen Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson (Skip)
Fay Henderson (alternate)
