BEIJING — For the best part of two weeks, it looked as though Great Britain might genuinely be returning home with no medals to their name.
It has not happened since 1992 in Albertville but the momentum was starting to shift in that direction after disappointments on snow and ice, including defeat in the mixed doubles of the curling.
However, Bruce Mouat and his rink guaranteed a British medal when they edged past the Americans late on Thursday night to reach the final, Britain’s first male team to reach the gold-medal match since Sochi 2014.
That rink was led by David Murdoch, who will be sitting in the coach’s chair this time around; he oversaw a 9-3 defeat eight years ago but will be more confident of victory this time around after Britain beat fellow finalists Sweden in the group stages.
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“[The game] against Sweden – that’s probably our A-game,” Murdoch said.
“So I think our focus just has to be ‘how do we bring that A-game?’ because when we bring that type of game, we’re really, really tough to beat.
“And I think the boys are throwing it well enough that we can reproduce that again. I firmly believe that.”
Having spent nearly five years together, the four-man rink are a close-knit group, and sport mad with it. In summer, no golf course is safe from a team that includes three single-handicappers, while the pool and table tennis tables in the athletes’ village have been very popular with the curlers.
Bruce Mouat (skip)
It is more curling nomenclature than ego that means this rink is known as Team Mouat. In fact, given the choice, the team’s talisman would probably prefer it wasn’t named after him.
An unassuming leader, he came out as gay to team-mates eight years ago and says it had a huge impact on his curling because his sports psychologist made him realise that “being gay didn’t really matter in terms of a sport, it’s not going to affect how I play, but that before I had come out it was affecting how I played”.
The Edinburgh-born skip is a three-time national champion, two-time European and also won a world title in mixed doubles with Jennifer Dodds, with whom he finished fourth in the Olympic event.
Grant Hardie (third, vice-skip)
The oldest member of the rink, Hardie was a skip in his own right, recording his first victory on the World Curling Tour in Aberdeen back in 2017 and also captaining the Scottish mixed doubles team before joining forces with Mouat.
He was joined by cousin Hammy McMillan to give the rink a distinctly familial feel, and immediately brought success, beginning with a national title in 2017 before going on to continental and international honours.
Bobby Lammy (second)
Dave Leith, head of performance at British curling, calls Bobby Lammy the best sweeper in the world. It is by far the most physically demanding job on the ice and Lammy is the fittest member of the team. One team-mate even reported him accidentally putting too much weight on a bar in the gym shortly before the Olympic Games and breaking his squat personal best by 15kg – so there is clearly more to come.
He is a fine sportsman too. The GB curling summer fourballs on the golf course are fiercely competitive but Lammy invariably comes out on top; his handicap of 0.6 means he is a hair’s breadth away from being a scratch player. There were even concerns at one point in his career that he might be poached by rugby, but there seems little chance of that now.
Hammy McMillan Jr (lead)
McMillan has been curling since the age of seven, introduced to it by his father Hammy Sr, who took him all over the world as part of his own career as an international curler.
Senior competed at two Olympics – in 1992 and 2002 – but never won a medal. However, he did win the world title in 1999, something his son remembers well.
“I’ve watched it back and it still gives me goosebumps watching that first end, and then after that I remember getting picked up from school when he got back,” Hammy Jr said this week.
“I got a day off school, so that was probably my favourite thing about the whole thing back then. He’s always given me advice and he’s one of my biggest supporters.”
Hammy Sr did try to blag a press pass to get out and cover the Games, but instead will be watching it back in Scotland with friends and family.