If you are old enough to remember Rhona Martin, you’re old enough to remember when more than five million people stayed up past midnight to watch curling.
They were rewarded by Martin’s crew winning Britain’s first Winter Olympic gold for nearly two decades, the Ayrshire skip guiding her crew to a dominant 9-5 win over the Germans at the 2002 Games.
And every four years since, Great Britain has turned into a nation of curling addicts for two weeks, hooked by the game they call “chess on ice” in which Team GB have won four more medals since Martin’s famous Salt Lake City triumph.
But what is really happening on 150 feet of ice, and how are these games really won and lost? We asked 2022 Olympic gold medallist Vicky Wright to help us out and teach us how to become an overnight curling expert.
Know your skips
Four-person curling teams are identified by the surname of their skip, because they are the leader of the quartet in every sense, on and off the ice, so it’s important to understand their different styles.
Great Britain’s Milano Cortina 2026 campaign is just a stone’s throw away…Go inside curling training as returning duo Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds prepare to kick off the Olympic Winter Games in the mixed doubles competition tomorrow Watch Team GB Trains, in partnership… pic.twitter.com/ABebu3lg0x
— Team GB (@TeamGB) February 3, 2026“Bruce [Mouat] is just such a calm influence, he doesn’t seem flustered. I just think he’s always in control,” says Wright of the GB men’s skip, who will also partner Jen Dodds in the mixed doubles. Mouat won silver with the men’s team four years ago and has the same group under him this time around.
“I think when you think about how that team was formed, it was quite unique in modern curling in Britain: a lot of teams are selected but they all wanted to play together.
“They’ve just built on that solid foundation over the last few years, and they’ve just got a real sense of trust between them, that there’s never any doubt, that nobody’s not gonna make a shot.”
Bruce Mouat is one of Britain’s most successful curlers ever (Photo: Getty)Women’s skip Sophie Jackson has a newer team: they were only form four years ago whereas Mouat and co have been together for nearly a decade.
Wright adds: “Sophie is really good at understanding how her players are feeling before the game starts. She will discuss a lot with the coaches about what the right tactics are.”
‘They’re great at flicking the hammer’
The hammer refers to the final shot of an end (games are divided up into 10 ends). If you won the previous end, you lose the hammer, so ideally you want to get the hammer in the 10th end for maxium control of the endgame.
“You will sometimes deliberately lose an end, or better, try and blank an end where there’s no points scored and you keep the hammer,” says Wright.
“It’s interesting because you always want to start the game with the hammer, which means you have it on an odd end
“But starting with it has always got a benefit because you’re in control and you’ll be able to flick it at some point.
“Bruce is really good at managing the scoreboard and trying flick the hammer to have it on even ends, and if they really need to go for two, they go really hard for it.”
‘The ice is starting to fudge’
“You’re always talking about the ice: is it swingy? Is it slow?
“Is it straight? Is it patchy? Is it fast in this part? Is it fudgy?
“Fudgy is when the ice is starting to sit in a bit. If it’s a bit sticky and stones are stopping a bit earlier than you expected, you’d say ‘it’s starting to fudge’.”
Beware the iceman
With so much focus on the frozen stuff, the iceman (“ice technician,” they prefer) is a key figure at any tournament and the British team will be pleased that Mark Callan, one of the few Scots on tour, has got the nod in Milan over an army of Canadian experts.
Ice preparation is a crucial part of any curling tournament (Photo: AP)Certain ice technicians are known for certain conditions (Wright predicts nice and swingy, but not wild ice in Milan) and certain tastes.
She adds: “You used to always take a bottle of whiskey to a championship in your bag and give it to the iceman early on to get them on your side for the week!”
’They’re playing themselves in’
If you really want to sound knowledgable in the early ends, you could tell your friends you think the Brits will feel out the ice early on by not leaving stones short to block straightforward shots, or throwing guards.
“The first end of the game, Bruce probably wouldn’t throw a guard. They would try and get a few stones in the rings, play a few more hits, play it nice and open, not get in a guzzle [this is Scottish rather than curling slang] where you are having to play lots of technical shots.”
Study the form guide
Mouat’s experienced crew are gold medal favourites having won the last two world championships in Ottawa and Moose Jaw. He and Dodds won silver at the mixed doubles worlds last spring too, meaning the Scot could be on for a double medal haul.
And if Jackson can find her best form, there is an outside chance of three from three for Team GB in curling.
“If the women get a top six finish that will be a really positive result for them, but that doesn’t mean they can’t get a medal,” Wright says.
“They brought home a European silver in November, so the performances are there it’s just whether they can deliver on the Olympic stage. Especially against their top teams, they always have really close games because they manage the scoreboard well.”
Follow the Winter Olympics across BBC TV, radio and online from 6 February
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