As a teenager Hailey Duff detested sport at school, but just a few weeks after her 25th birthday she was an Olympic gold medallist and she puts that down to the attitudes she has encountered at every level since being introduced to the sport of curling.
Speaking on International Women’s Day with its 2023 theme of insisting upon embracing equity, Duff hopes her experience as the youngest member of Eve Muirhead’s line-up when they won gold for Team GB in Beijing last year, can inspire many more youngsters to try a sport that has worked hard to ensure it is a place of equal opportunity for men and women. 
“I really hope that with my gold medal win I can get more girls into the sport when they are young because when I was a young girl I hated PE when I was at school,” she admitted.
“I hated sport. The only thing I loved was curling. With the exception of maybe one or two other sports I really didn’t enjoy sport at school at all and I think if I didn’t have curling I would have been totally put off sport completely.
“So after the Olympics I have gone into schools, guides, cubs, loads and loads of different groups and organisations and I have prioritised kids in particular and talking to them is so important.
“I talk to them about what a sporting environment is like and it is not like what I experienced when I was at school. Just to show the other side of it and what people can achieve I think that is really important.”
She believes there is evidence of improvement even in the most traditional sports, but notes that there remains considerable work to be done.
“Women’s sport in general is definitely going in the right direction now,” she said.
“The Lionesses winning the Euros that has been a big push and those viewing figures now as well are really important. 
“There are loads of other minority sports that can help in this space – there are a lot of good female athletes doing a lot of good work and not getting the publicity for it and I think we need to push the small sports and the big ones – even if not on the main channels just show it somewhere and grow it from there.
“There are so many sports and people you don’t know about until they win something, athletes and their followers are all trying to put stuff out there all trying to get news outlets interested and there is an interest out there.
“You see with curling whenever the Olympics is on and also during the Commonwealth Games you become obsessed with sports you have never watched before, which is great.
“So many people get involved and watch so many sports and we see so many female athletes doing well, but after that it is back to the traditional sports and other sports get forgotten about so we need to see more variety.”
Duff believes her experience is a prime example of what can happen when the right culture is created within a sport that provides opportunities and encourages participants to pursue them.
“Understanding the sport and the behind-the-scenes is really important,” she said.
“I hope I have shown hard work and dedication and the right attitude can get you to wherever you want to be.
“When I do talks about the Olympics I tell people I was never really meant to be there, to go there.
“That was something that came about because I was lucky and there was a lot of hard work behind that luck that got me there.
“Talking about that and how that all happened hopefully helps young girls, explaining that sometimes you feel like you can’t reach something then something changes and you have an opportunity to go for something and that is what happened for me at the Olympics.”
While keen to encourage women into sport as a whole, she is particularly proud of her involvement in one that is, at least in relative terms, ahead of the game and reckons there is room for many more to enjoy what she has encountered.
“I think there is loads of opportunity for women to thrive in this sport,” said Duff.
“We definitely have room for more females to come through because we still have more young male curlers coming through, so it’s still really important we help with the re-balance.
“There are a lot of girls in the National Curling Academy that and lots of women in the management team here as well who are super nice, really open.
“You can speak to them about anything if you need to and they will help you as will our female coaches.
“More of them coming through would be great but we are starting to see that now too, which is really positive as well.” 
Her experience is exemplified by the new pairing she has formed with Bobby Lammie in the new Olympic discipline of Mixed Doubles.
As the reigning World Mixed Doubles champion, Lammie needed a new partner after Muirhead retired from the sport at the end of last season and they won the first competition they played in together.
“We have a lot of good conversations,” said Duff.
“He is happy as long as I am happy so we have a lot of equality and we speak very openly.
“I definitely think it only works in mixed doubles curling where you have that equality.
“Whenever you see mixed doubles there is a lot of open conversations and people listening to each other.
“I think that being in pairs if one person was leading all the time I don’t think that partnership would work. You just can’t do that in a game and both be happy.”
That message was reinforced by her Olympic gold medal winning teammate Jen Dodds, the former World Mixed Doubles champion who reclaimed the Scottish title with Bruce Mouat last month.
“I think for me and Bruce there is total equality we both appreciate each other opinions and values and we always have a discussion if it is shot making or anything,” Dodds explained. 
“It’s not about one opinion being more important than the other. I think that comes from knowing each other for so many years as well so we do value our partnership discussions which come from a good place.
“You have five stones in Mixed doubles one person throws two stones and the other three but you decide between you who throws what. The way we do it I throw the first and last and Bruce throws the middle three.
“It equals out as the person throwing last stones has the pressure of that decisive shot but the person that throws three is throwing more shots.
“It’s not always the male that throws the middle three, so it’s down to the team, no set rule.”
Dodds consequently believes curling is an exemplar in terms of gender relations.
“I think we have shown there is equality between genders in this sport,” she said.
“We absolutely have the same opportunities within this sport and have all the same access to everything, support services, coaches so I think that shows in the success across the sport.
“Rhona Martin’s team in 2002 and ourselves have had great success winning Olympic gold, but you also had David Murdoch’s teams and Bruce’s team getting silver at Olympics and getting so close to gold so I think that shows it is very equal. There is no gender bias. 
“I think in our hierarchies we have also had Kate Caithness CBE who was the first female President of the World Curling Federation and was a real trailblazer who did great things for the sport.
“She was one of the pioneers of wheelchair curling at the Paralympics, she got mixed doubles into the Olympics and also into the next Paralympics in Milan-Cortina, so she did so much for our Olympic and Paralympic sport in her 10-year Presidency.
“So, it is good to see that and have that mix up there in organisations. We all have different backgrounds and having that mix of views is really important for the sport in general.”
That culture has also been demonstrated by the way her mixed doubles partner Bruce Mouat has been treated since coming out as a gay athlete.
“I think as Bruce said we are so fortunate to have such an inclusive and welcoming sport,” said Dodds.
“You hear that might not be the case in other sports and they can be hostile at times.
“The curling community prides itself on the fact that anyone can walk into any club and be made to feel welcome which is a good start.
“It gets people through the door. Being an open and social sport you get that really friendly atmosphere on and off the ice.”
#IWD2023 #EmbraceEquity
Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff received their MBE's earlier this year for services to curling.
