Former elite curler Eilidh Yeats has become the first person employed by the only Olympic and Paralympic programme based in Scotland to be funded by the English Institute of Sport (EIS) after being appointed as a Data Scientist for British Curling. This partnership is part of a process of building on the organisation’s long-standing relationship with the sportscotland Institute of Sport (SIS) that has generated rich rewards.
27-year-old Yeats has had a fine career in the sport, spending three years with British Curling as a performance foundation athlete and continued her education throughout that period, completing a Masters in Data Science for Business at the University of Stirling last year. 
British Curling already benefits from the work done through SIS’s partnership with the University of Stirling and The Data Lab to provide people development and bespoke analytic solutions to sport. However, Yeats now joins the Performance Data Team, a central team within the EIS devoted to enabling and empowering the creation of performance insight from data in providing data science support to all British Olympic and Paralympic teams.
Having also been a funded curler until last year, Yeats meanwhile brings a unique combination of that recent experience of playing the sport at the highest level with bringing fresh energy to a new career, so is excited by the prospect and although she is Scottish born-and-bred she is delighted to become a trailblazer in being recruited by the EIS.
“This is the start of a new relationship with the EIS and I get support from them and British Curling, so it’s brilliant,” she said.
“This is my first role since I did my Masters in Data Science for Business, so I’m really excited to get started and get to use that, while also pursuing my passion and interest in curling as well.
“Having a background in curling and the inside knowledge of how the programme operates, along with my academic background in data science already gives me a head start in this role.
“Just being able to relate it to my own previous experience when looking at what coaches are hoping to achieve in the next Olympic cycle,that already established knowledge will help me get there a lot quicker.”
Involving collaboration with British Curling, the EIS and the sportscotland Institute of Sport support team, her role has the potential to be a true labour of love, since the Inverness native discovered her enthusiasm for data analysis during a previous role as a business analyst with Highland Regional Council.
“I discovered in a previous role how much I was interested in working with large amounts of data, so that was what inspired me to want to study it while doing my curling, so getting to do them both is a real privilege,” she explained. 
“I think my new role will build upon the previous work that the EIS Performance Data team and British Curling have done together in this space, so the support I am going to get will be brilliant. I’m really looking forward to networking with them and sportscotland, establishing good relationships to get the most from that in implementing my new role here,”
While the organisation is the only Olympic and Paralympic programme based in Scotland, Yeats’ appointment reflects British Curling’s recognition of the need to make full use of available resources to maximise the potential of both the players and the sport across the UK.
“Curling is an indigenous Scottish sport, so we have naturally always worked closely with sportscotland and that will always continue to be the case. However, gaining access to the facilities and knowhow available across the UK represents another opportunity for us to gain competitive advantage,” explained Nigel Holl, British Curling’s Executive Performance Director.
“While there are relatively few curling facilities in the UK outside of Scotland, our vision is to see that change, building on the exceptional work that has earned the sport attention across the country with a succession of medal successes at the Winter Olympics, where curling was the only sport to win medals for Team GB last year and at World and European Championships.
“We want to help curling grow throughout the UK and the support we have had in terms of services being made available by the English Institute of Sport has reflected that.
“This collaboration in creating a position in what is an increasingly important area within sport is a development of that and Eilidh’s combined skills and knowledge will make her an extremely valuable addition to our team.”
