Scottish curlers Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds lift lid on ice-cool strategy that can fire them to Winter Olympic glory

Ice-cool curler Bruce Mouat insists he will not wilt in the heat of Beijing battle as he prepares to serve up a slice of British Olympic history.

Mouat and Jennifer Dodds will become the first ever Team GB curlers to compete in the mixed doubles event on Wednesday when they clash with Sweden in one of the first event of the Games.

Mouat, 27, and Dodds, 30, were crowned world champions in the discipline last year and arrive in the Chinese capital as one of Britain’s chief medal hopes after a searing year on the circuit.

The Scots have been diligently surveying their surroundings in the Chinese capital and reckon keeping calm under pressure can fire them to glory this weekend.

Mouat, who takes to the ice at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre at 12:05pm UK-time on Wednesday, said: "I think that the fact that we have been out here for a few days settling in is going to help us when we get in to the curling because we have already distracted ourselves with all the Olympic things that you can do.

"Fortunately, we know most of the opposition that we are going to come up against and we have played them in a number of mixed doubles events.

“We know that we have to play well throughout the event to be able to stand on the podium, but I think that the feeling we have got right now is just pure excitement about just getting going now and we are itching to get on the ice and start competing."

Dodds, a lifelong friend of Mouat after meeting at Edinburgh’s Gogar Park Curling Club, added: "It is a real honour to be the first Brits to have a chance at the curling double.

"We went and visited the venue and it looked incredible and I don't think the pictures do it justice even, like the huge screen showing the houses.

“Going there made