As she and her teammates prepare for the LGT World Women’s Championships taking place in Uijeongbu, Korea (March 15-23) Olympic champion Jen Dodds is fully aware of what is at stake, but experience is ensuring that there is no loss of focus.
The Scotland team of Rebecca Morrison, Dodds, Sophie Sinclair, Sophie Jackson and their alternate Fay Henderson know they need a strong finish to ensure that Team GB get the chance to defend the title won when Dodds was part of Eve Muirhead’s line-up that won the title in Beijing in 2022, when the Winter Olympics take place in Milan-Cortina next year. 
With seven teams set to join hosts Italy in pre-qualifying for the Olympics by the end of this Championship, the Scots currently occupy the last of those places on the basis of last year’s World Championships and while there is a second opportunity at the Olympic Qualifying Event (OQE) later this year, qualifying through the Worlds is by far the preferred option.
However, looking too far ahead at potential outcomes will do nothing to help the team win matches, as the 33-year-old from Edinburgh pointed out.
“We know there are Olympic points at stake this year and we are on the cusp just now but I think that is not the main concern for us this week,” said Dodds.
“We just want to put our best performances out there and stick to our processes, the classic clichés of one game at a time, but it really does work.
“We can’t control the qualifying points but we can control what we do with our processes and how we get prepared for games.
“That is our main focus and hopefully the results will follow and then Olympic points after that.”
Of course, Team GB did have to rely on the OQE last time around and Dodds remembers that as a classic example of taking a challenging situation and turning it into a positive one.
“Obviously I have the experience of going to the OQE after not qualifying at the end of the last Olympic cycle, which was obviously very disappointing at the time but looking back it was probably one of the best things that happened to us,” she recalled. 
“The OQE was the last major competition before the Olympics because of lockdown and life back then around Covid and it was just another event we could embed the team in as it was still relatively a new team, so we didn’t see it as jeopardy, we saw it as an opportunity to keep working on things that we knew we needed to work on leading into the Olympics.
“So, I think for me this time around, obviously our one aim is to qualify Team GB a spot through this worlds but at the end of the worlds if you don’t do it you know you have the other opportunity at the Olympic qualifying event.
“I wouldn’t have had that mentality four years ago because it did feel like the end of the world when we didn’t qualify last time around, but this time, for me, it does feels more relaxing because you know you have two chances, so there is no point putting so much pressure on the first attempt.
“You just need to act like this is a normal competition and stick to processes, know what you do and when we go out and enjoy it that is when we perform at our best so that is what we need to do this week and I don’t feel there is extra pressure because of that because I have been through both scenarios in the past.”
It has been very much a case of ensuring that those processes are right over the past month since Morrison, Dodds, Sinclair and Jackson lost the Scottish Championship final and having recruited the skip who beat them that day, Fay Henderson, as their fifth player, they believe they have identified what is required to make the necessary improvements ahead of this World Championships.
“We haven’t had a competition since the Scottish, but it has given us a month of solid training all together and obviously we took our learnings from the Scottish and from playing in Bern in January and worked really hard over this last month to work on them and I feel that we are in a really good place heading into this Worlds,” said Dodds. 
“Obviously with the addition of Fay, incorporating her into the team as well has been really good fun.
“We have just worked really hard on the things we needed to and we have been working hard in the gym and maintaining our strength and conditioning and plenty of on ice sessions and putting the finishing touches to our training.
“Since we have been out here in Korea we have had sessions which have been really good as well.”
She also believes that as a group they now have the required experience of World Championship play to maximise their potential this time around.
“I have been to a few World Championships and now obviously this is the third as a group and you always learn things year on year,” said Dodds.
“It is a gruelling championships with a 13 team round robin it is tough, but you learn techniques each time to help you to preserve energy and still put in your best performances out there, so we are ready, having done a lot of work in preparation to get to this point starting the Worlds.”
Scotland open their campaign against Canada’s defending World Champions at 10 am (UK time) on Saturday, March 15.
Please click here for draw and results.
Watch LIVE games on The Curling Channel.
The following games will be available on the BBC iPlayer:
15 March – Scotland v Canada
16 March – Scotland v Korea
17 March – Scotland v Switzerland
19 March – Scotland v Japan
Scotland Team
Rebecca Morrison
Jen Dodds
Sophie Sinclair
Sophie Jackson (skip)
Fay Henderson
Team Coach: Ross Paterson
Olympic Head Coach: Greg Drummond
SCHEDULE:
Saturday 15 March
10.00am Scotland – Canada
Sunday 16 March
12.00 midnight Scotland – Norway
10.00am Scotland – Korea
Monday 17 March
12.00 midnight Scotland – Italy
10.00am Scotland – Switzerland
Tuesday 18 March
5.00am Scotland – Sweden
10.00am Scotland – Lithuania
Wednesday 19 March
5.00am Scotland – USA
10.00am Scotland – Japan
Thursday 20 March
5.00am Scotland – Turkiye
Friday 21 March
12.00 midnight Scotland – Denmark
5.00am Scotland – China
Saturday 22 March
1.00am Qualifiers
7.00am Semi Finals
Sunday 23 March
1.00am Bronze Medal Game
7.00am Gold Medal Game
Images: GD/British Curling, Team GB/David Pearce
