Team GB’s stars of the Winter Olympics in China return to action on home ice for the first time this week when they contest the Scottish Mixed Doubles Championships in Perth (March 3-6).
Members of the gold and silver medal winning teams will be out in force with Jen Dodds defending her title along with Bruce Mouat as the first British curler in history to be able to lay claim to being a Scottish, European, World and Olympic champion at the same time. 
Victory at this event when it was last held was the start of a lengthy run of success for both, culminating in reaching Olympian heights, but just missing out on a medal in Mixed Doubles in Beijing has left them determined to give themselves a chance of defending their World Mixed Doubles title later this season.
“It’s been a while waiting to defend this title,” said Dodds.
“Myself and Bruce won it back in March 2020, so after two years we’re looking forward to another Scottish Championships.
Playing these events are special to us because it’s a great thing to be able to call yourself a Scottish champion and we’re looking forward to trying to retain our title and if we win we will hopefully be in with a good chance of getting a spot at the World Championships.
“We’re looking forward to getting back to a domestic event. The high of the Olympics is still sinking in, but we’re also looking forward to getting back to playing Mixed Doubles again together.
“Obviously there was disappointment in Beijing, coming fourth, but I think that’s given us a bit of a drive when there’s still things to achieve this season and we both had medal success after that disappointment of coming fourth, so I think we’re still quite motivated and the Scottish is still an important competition for us.” 
Tough to take as the final outcome was, when missing out in both their Olympic semi-final and then the bronze medal match, Dodds is hopeful that the experience can give them an edge over their rivals.
“I think we might have a slight advantage, having played Mixed Doubles in Beijing when the other teams have probably not played together for a good wee while since the Stirling event at the start of January, but we know there are going to be strong teams out there,” she noted.
“There is real strength in depth here, so we will need to be performing well because the other teams (that were not at the Olympics), have just come off the Scottish Men’s and Women’s Championships, so they have had a lot of game time when we’ve been off for a week.”
Having demonstrated their professionalism in recovering as quickly as they did from the Mixed Doubles in Beijing to help their teams to that gold for the women’s team, immediately after Mouat and his men claimed Team GB’s first medal of the Olympics in reaching the men’s final, they will meanwhile adopt the same approach that has served them so well to this point.
“Bruce and I have chatted a bit about Beijing, but we did a good job of putting it aside over there to concentrate on the men’s and women’s events,” said Dodds.
“We’re just looking forward to having some fun out there and enjoying it, because that’s when we play our best. 
“I’m looking forward to getting back on ice after a week’s rest and everything that we’ve been doing and getting back into it.
“After that huge high you need to get back to reality a wee bit, so this is a good start to that.”
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Photos: Team GB / David Pearce
