Canadian Grand Slam Champion Clancy Grandy has joined British Curling as part of its coaching team for the coming season.
The 33-year-old who skipped teams to back-to-back British Columbia Scotties titles in 2023 and 2024 announced she was stepping away from competing at the top level of the game earlier this summer and is now looking to draw upon her extensive competitive experience as she moves into full time coaching.
“I have always had aspirations of moving into high performance coaching at some point in my career,” said Grandy, who has now relocated to Scotland and lives in close proximity to the National Curling Academy in Stirling.
“I believe that the timing has worked out perfectly being able to step into a performance coaching role with British Curling. 
“As a competitive player, I admired the programme that has been built through British Curling and the work ethic that all of the athletes display, therefore I was very excited and grateful for such an opportunity to start my coaching career within this organisation.”
Grandy is no stranger to the high performance coaching world since, while fulfilling a busy schedule on the World Curling Tour, she previously juggled her time on Tour with her role as assistant coach to the Netherlands Curling Association from 2018-2022. Her extensive resume also includes working as High Performance Development Co-ordinator with Curl BC (British Columbia).
Since accepting her new role, Grandy has had to quickly adjust to her new environment and hit the ground running during her first week on board as the organisation hosted its first international of the season, the Euro Super Series.
“The move to Scotland has been excellent so far,” she said.
“I am getting settled in quickly and finding myself feeling very at home here, which has largely been due to the support from all staff members and athletes within the programme.”
Grandy will be working alongside fellow Grand Slam Champion Ross Paterson coaching the women’s teams on the Olympic programme and she is looking forward to contributing to the organisation’s successes building towards Milan Cortina and beyond.
“Short term, my aspirations are to provide support within the women’s programme, whilst gaining knowledge of the systems and I have felt extremely welcomed thus far and look forward to supporting teams on numerous tour campaigns and championships throughout the season.
“Long term, I have aspirations of coaching at the World Championship and Olympic levels within the British Curling programme. I am quite excited about many successful years to come working within the world class programme and I aspire to challenge myself each season to gain more knowledge and deepen the foundation that I bring to our athletes, as well as the next generation of athletes to come.”
Olympic Head Coach Greg Drummond and Pathway Manager – Olympic Nancy Smith will be leading on mixed doubles and individual athletes respectively, while Paralympic Head Coach Sheila Swan will oversee both the Scotland and England Wheelchair squads. On the men’s Olympic programme, Michael Goodfellow will continue to work with Team Mouat and Al Scott remains with Team Whyte.
At Performance Foundation (PF) level, Iain Watt and Ryan Carson will coach Team Craik and Team Carson respectively, along with Apprentice Technical Coaches Niall Ryder and Luke Carson who are lead coaches with PF Teams Laurie and Watt. Ryder and Carson will also be working across the Paralympic programme alongside Elspeth Burton and England Wheelchair Coaches Tony and Rosemary Lenton.
Additional technical and competition coaching will be provided by Olympic Champions Eve Muirhead and Jen Dodds who are joined for the first time by their Beijing gold medal winning team mate Vicky Drummond. Fellow Olympians Tom Brewster and Kyle Waddell, as well as former Team Mouat coach Alan Hannah, Alison Cunningham and Robin Brydone will also be supporting the Olympic programme.
Images: Tom J Brydone
