Olympic champion Jen Dodds will bring her vast experience and knowhow to national champions Team Morrison as she makes a return to the women’s team game in season 2023-24.
The first woman to represent Team GB in two curling disciplines at a Winter Olympic Games, will also continue to focus on mixed doubles, but now feels ready to compete on two fronts again after joining the European bronze medallists as alternate for what was their first World Championship campaign together earlier this year. 
“I’m really looking forward to getting started with the new season,” Dodds said of her selection alongside the established quartet Rebecca Morrison, Gina Aitken, Sophie Sinclair and Sophie Jackson.
“The girls obviously had a lot of success last year with the Scottish Champs and European bronze medal, so I hopefully can come in and not change things too much, but keep going with their flow, bring some experience to the team and add any knowledge I can pass on.
“That is going to be great and we have a lot of work to do. We are in pre-season just now and in July we will be back on ice, which is going to be a time when we are working really hard.
“The World Championships was reassuring in that I could just slot in with them. It worked well so that gave us a lot of confidence going into this season.
“There are a lot of things to work out and we will be working hard this year obviously we had the disappointment at the worlds, but we had a lot of close games and we are going to be working on our weaknesses and keep building on our strengths to turn those situations into wins.”
After winning Olympic gold in 2022, as well as reaching the semi-finals of the Mixed Doubles in Beijing along with Bruce Mouat, Dodds admitted to feeling exhausted at the end of that campaign, resulting in the decision to allow her to take a rest from the team game last season. 
“I am really glad I took that slight step back last season it was really needed, safe to say I was burnt out after the Olympics and it took me a good while to get back to myself so that gave me that time,” she explained.
“I’m now feeling refreshed and I am still grateful to have the opportunity to do both disciplines and still have that focus on mixed doubles going into the Milan cycle.”
She noted that leading players across the globe are increasingly looking to give themselves two opportunities to compete for honours at the highest level but with opportunities to compete at elite level still limited in mixed doubles, she recognised the need to hone her competitive edge.
“There are a lot more combining men’s and women’s with mixed doubles, so I think it will be good for me getting a bit more playing time compared with last season and again work on my weaknesses in the women’s and the mixed doubles and that can only improve things,” Dodds observed.
Another change to British Curling’s women’s teams sees 2022 World Junior Championship winning skip Fay Henderson graduate to the senior game, skipping a team which includes another member of the Olympic gold medal winning line-up Hailey Duff, as well as Duff’s regular teammates from last season, Beth Farmer, Amy MacDonald and Katie McMillan. 
Kirstin Bousie, who had previously been part of that five-player team, has decided to step down from the programme this year, while Henderson’s World Junior Championship winning teammates Holly Wilkie-Milne and Laura Watt will now be led by her vice skip Robyn Munro, with Lisa Davie making up the foursome.
In the men’s game there have been no changes to British Curling’s two Podium/Podium Potential level teams who both finished the season in the world’s top 10, number two ranked Team Mouat, who won the World Championships in April and number nine ranked Team Whyte.
As he looks forward to working with the line-ups, British Curling’s newly appointed Olympic Head Coach Greg Drummond noted that the success of the past two years, that has seen no fewer than 10 gold medals won at major curling championships, had allowed for consistency of selection.
“As we work towards the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina we have exceptionally strong foundations on which to build and we are aiming to give all of our leading and most promising players the opportunities they deserve to maximise their potential,” he said. 
“There is enormous talent at our disposal and we are excited by the prospect of watching them compete both domestically and in the international arena.”
PODIUM/PODIUM POTENTIAL TEAMS:
TEAM MOUAT
Bruce Mouat
Grant Hardie
Bobby Lammie
Hammy McMillan
TEAM WHYTE
Ross Whyte
Robin Brydone
Duncan McFadzean
Euan Kyle
TEAM MORRISON
Rebecca Morrison
Gina Aitken
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson
Jen Dodds
TEAM HENDERSON (playing order TBC) 
Fay Henderson
Beth Farmer
Amy MacDonald
Katie McMillan
Hailey Duff
TEAM MUNRO
Robyn Munro
Lisa Davie
Holly Wilkie-Milne
Laura Watt
#curling
Images: WCF/Jeffrey Au, WCF/Eakin Howard, WCF/Celine Stucki, WCF/Alina Pavlyuchik, Wataru Yamagishi.
