Silver medal is fuel to fire of Bruce Mouat for more curling glory

Talismanic Bruce Mouat admits defeat in the Olympic final has added ‘fuel to the fire’ of achieving his ‘ultimate dream’ of Milan-Cortina 2026 gold.

Mouat, 27, led his team to within a whisker of Olympic glory, ending up on the wrong end of a narrow 5-4 defeat against Sweden in the final at the Ice Cube.

Mouat, Bobby Lammie, Grant Hardie and Hammy McMillan couldn’t quite overcome Niklas Edin’s impressive Swedish team as they had to settle for second-best in Beijing.

And Mouat, who also lost the mixed doubles bronze medal match with Jennifer Dodds, is already looking at Milan-Cortina 2026 and beyond.

He said: “It definitely added fuel to that fire, the fire was already lit, but just being so close to having that gold medal and being literally centimetres away from making that last shot, it makes me want to go back and really achieve my ultimate dream of winning a gold medal.

“We’re going to aim to go for that gold medal at the Olympics in Italy. The fact it’s closer to home is really special and hopefully our friends and family can go to that one as well.

“But it takes a lot of hard work and time and effort to get to there and we have to thank The National Lottery for all the funding they have given us and everyone that funds The National Lottery is really funding our chance to make it to the Olympics.

“We’re going to have to work hard to be at the next Olympics, but we’re a young team so we’re going to have that opportunity I think.”

While Mouat watched with pride as Eve Muirhead and the women’s rink took gold, the men were ultimately disappointed with Olympic silver - showing how ambitious the quartet are - after having time to process their achievement, the feeling of pride has begun to sink in, with the help of the