Anytime Scotland win a World gold medal in curling, you know the team is a special one.
We’re known as one of the traditional curling nations but we haven’t actually been first at the Worlds as often as you might think.
It’s impossible to compare one era against another – the sport has changed so much over the years.
But I’d be pretty confident in saying Team Mouat’s performance in the final on Sunday evening was the most dominant one there’s ever been for a Scottish gold.
You could say that Brad Gushue’s rink didn’t produce their best on the night but Bruce and the boys would have stepped it up, even if they had.
It was that kind of performance.
You wouldn’t normally associate curling as a sport where you have to try and take the crowd out of the equation but, trust me, when you’re up against Canada in Canada and there are 6,500 noisy spectators wanting one thing, that’s definitely the case.
That’s exactly what Team Mouat did.
They put the pressure on from the first end and forced mistakes out of Team Gushue.
At this moment, there isn’t a weakness to their game.
And here's the winning stone 🥌
Mouat, Hardie, Lammie and McMillan: Your World champions!pic.twitter.com/BHFYhsqVzS
— Team GB (@TeamGB) April 10, 2023
Bruce’s weight control is phenomenal, I’ve spoken about Bobby’s sweeping loads of times in the past and the other two guys are top all-round curlers as well.
And maybe the most impressive quality is the way they plan for every scenario, two or three steps ahead.
They cover every base.
Building their profile
It’s a wee bit of a shame that they didn’t get to fly straight home to get the full media attention.
I think they’ll be away competing for another few weeks.
But raising their profile – and that of the sport – isn’t their main focus over the next couple of years.
That’s the job of Scottish Curling, British Curling and others.
The boys need to make sure they maintain their status as the team to beat, which I’m sure they will.
Apart from the gold medal for Scotland, the biggest thing curlers will remember the championships for was Niklas Edin’s shot that is still pinned to World Curling’s Twitter account.
I’ve thrown more stones than I care to remember – and watched even more – but I can say without exaggeration that the one he came up with to force an extra end against Norway is the best I’ve ever seen.
It was incredible.
He saw it. He believed it. He made it. 🤯
Sweden force an extra end with an iconic spinner against Norway! #WMCC2023 pic.twitter.com/X17R8qiR18
— World Curling (@worldcurling) April 5, 2023
Looking at the position of the stones and the fact Sweden needed a two, I’d have shaken hands and headed to the changing room.
I couldn’t see a way of making it happen.
There were two stones more or less locked on each other, maybe even at a slight angle not in Niklas’s favour.
The one nearest to him was the opposition’s.
He spun it as hard as he could – it’s moving like a spinning top going down the ice – and it’s nicked the opposition one to knock it up and back and somehow his own stone has hung on at the back of the rings.
The physics of it is mind-blowing!
It was a one in thousands and thousands to make it and he’s probably the only guy who could do it – or would even try in the first place.
He might not have won another gold but it’s added to the Niklas Edin legend.
Conversation