Team GB’s look forward to a medal at Milan Cortina Olympics goes on regardless of £25m funding as curling duo endure extra heartbreak after failing when it mattered most
The only saving grace as another medal slipped away for Britain is that neither Bruce Mouat nor Jen Dodds stubbed a toe on one of their stones.
Other consolations would be harder to apportion from a mixed curling competition in which they were utterly dominant, cruising even, until the rounds when it mattered most, culminating in Monday’s defeat in the match for bronze against Italy.
Much like Mia Brookes and Kirsty Muir on Monday, they must now reconcile themselves with a fourth-placed finish, albeit without the buzz that comes from flying off snowy ramps.
No, this was flat and underwhelming, with the 5-3 scoreline telling a story about a match that twitched rather than pulsed and never veered in Britain’s favour. For once, the BBC might have been forgiven had they chosen to run a repeat of Homes Under The Hammer.
If there is sensible context to be applied, it is that the Italian pairing of Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner are defending world and Olympic champions. But the counter is that Dodds and Mouat arrived in Cortina as top seeds, stormed to eight wins from nine in the round robin, including a victory over Italy, and then got trounced by Sweden in Monday’s semi-final before failing to access their higher gears in the medal game.
Of course, these are early days in the Games and the British squad carries more medal potential than ever before, which includes strong prospects for both Dodds and Mouat in the women’s and men’s competitions. But factoring for Brookes, Muir and the curling, Team GB is now zero for three in disciplines where they had high hopes.
Bruce Mouat and Jen Dodds suffered more heartbreak as they lost the bronze medal match
The Team GB pairing were beaten by Italy’s Stefania Constantini and Amos Mosaner
That overall medal target of between four and eight is still very attainable, especially with the emergence of Tabitha Stoecker as quickest in women’s skeleton practise on Tuesday, and yet the pressure is increasing. For Eve Muirhead, head of the Team GB delegation and Dodds’ skip when they won women’s gold at Beijing 2022, those thoughts will have crossed her mind in the familiar setting of a curling rink.
‘It is a case of so close yet so far,’ said Dodds, having experienced the same result alongside Mouat in the mixed at Beijing 2022.
‘It hurts the same as four years ago really. I don’t want to ugly cry so I’m just going to stop there.’
Mouat added: ‘It is rough. We played so much better than we did four years ago, but to leave with the same result is going to hurt for a bit, but both of us are pretty resilient people.
‘We fought for everything this week and I’m extremely proud of us. We spoke last night about how lucky we are to be playing at the Olympics as best mates. We are two people that grew up together and never really knew where we could go with curling.
‘I’m obviously pretty gutted but I’m so proud of us for sticking at it.’
The onus will fall on them to rebound when the curling resumes on Wednesday. Dodds’ Beijing gold tells us that is plausible, as does the silver that Mouat claimed in the men’s event four years ago.
But for the time being British attentions will shift to the ice dancing pair of Lilah Fear and Lewis Gibson, who sit fourth ahead of the free dance finale in Milan on Wednesday. If they jump a spot, we will be talking about Torvill and Dean; if they don’t, the mood will get a little edgy for Muirhead, whose squad were funded to the tune of £25million in lottery money.
‘I think we need to start building a little bit of momentum,’ said Muirhead. ‘We have to stay positive, don’t we? We’ve got a long way to go and it’s crucial that the sports pull together as one and really bring the morale up.’
