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The 10 Scottish curlers who are representing Team GB in Cortina right now are professional athletes.<\/p>\n
From the start of July until the end of April – when they are not at a competition somewhere in the world – they will report to the National Curling Academy in Stirling every weekday morning to start training at 08:00. <\/p>\n
Each day includes two two-hour ice sessions and one in the gym.<\/p>\n
Across a week, three of those gym stints are strength-based and two conditioning. Most athletes will add another at the weekend, just to keep themselves right.<\/p>\n
They are supervised – no sitting on a bench next to the weights while doomscrolling for this lot – and are specifically designed with curling in mind.<\/p>\n
“It’s Olympic lifts we’re doing – clean and jerk, snatches, squats, the lot,” says men’s lead Hammy McMillan. “And we’re using ski machines, rowers, and assault bikes to really condition our bodies.”<\/p>\n
“The numbers we put up, I don’t think people would expect them,” adds Bobby Lammie, who is credited alongside McMillan as having changed the physicality expected of sweepers.<\/p>\n
“It’s allowed us to separate ourselves slightly from the rest of the world.”<\/p>\n
Similar can be said of the women’s game, where 2022 gold medallist Jen Dodds – one of the world’s best with a brush – is lifting just as much as some of the men. <\/p>\n
“More than me, to be fair,” admits men’s vice-skip Grant Hardie.<\/p>\n
“Jen is incredible in the gym,” adds Team GB women’s skip Rebecca Morrison, who takes a slightly different view of the physical work.<\/p>\n
“You need a lot of core strength to even stay upright on the ice,” she says.<\/p>\n
“Maybe we’re not flinging ourselves off massive jumps or sliding down a track at 80 miles per hour, but it’s a lot harder than people realise to even keep your balance.”<\/p>\n
Add in tactical and analysis sessions, meetings with sports psychologist and nutritionists, and physio, and the days quickly become filled.<\/p>\n
In May and June, most of those demands disappear, but the strength and conditioning work continues every weekday morning. <\/p>\n
At some point during that spell, a couple of weeks are permitted for a holiday, but then the curlers are back at it.<\/p>\n
“It’s a full-time, all-year round job,” says BBC Sport pundit Vicky Wright, who won Olympic women’s gold in Beijing four years ago and is married to head coach Greg Drummond.<\/p>\n
“May and June are supposed to be your recovery time – and you get a break at some point during those months – but you never have an actual holiday from it. You’re curling 44 weeks a year, easily.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n