Curling-Britain's Mouat sees pressure as a good thing at Games

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 11 - Britain's men's curling team enter the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics carrying the weight of the favourites tag, but skip Bruce Mouat on Wednesday turned the heat back on their opponents, saying that pressure cuts both ways.

The silver medallists from Beijing had a stellar 2024-25 season in which they became the first rink to win four Grand Slams in one campaign and captured the 2025 world championships.

They followed that up by winning two more Grand Slam events in the lead-up to the Games as well as all nine of their round-robin matches at the European Curling Championships in November before losing to Olympic gold medallists Sweden in the semi-finals.

Asked if their performances had left them with a target on their backs, Mouat told Reuters: "Yeah, probably.

"We have been world number one for over a year now. But we see that pressure as a good thing. A lot of teams know that they have to play well to beat us.

"And that puts a lot of that pressure on the other teams."

The 31-year-old will be looking to put his disappointing fourth-placed finish in the mixed doubles competition alongside Jennifer Dodds in the rear-view mirror when he takes to the ice with his men's team.

"We're very excited," he said, speaking after a training session at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.

"It's nice to be back with the guys. They have obviously been training without me for the last week, so yeah, it was nice to get back on the ice with them and the practice was good there."

Britain begin their campaign with a round-robin clash against China on Wednesday. REUTERS