The High Performance Program: To Love or To Hate?
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If you’ve followed me long enough, you’ll know that despite being a Canadian, Team Bruce Mouat is my favourite men’s team, and I promise you I’ve been a fan of them before their newfound dominance. The team will be going into their 5th season as a unit and will look to build on their massive success, nabbing silver at the Olympics and winning four of the last six slams.
In 2017, Scottish and British Curling assembled their national teams. On the men’s side, Olympic representatives Team Kyle Smith led the charge. 2016 World representatives Team Greg Drummond also headlined the programme. Although being added into the nation’s high performance program, Team Mouat practically assembled their team themselves. Bobby had already been playing with Bruce in juniors, capturing a World junior and Winter Universiade title. Grant has been skipping own team and Hammy played lead for Tom Brewster.
The high performance format is a bit foreign to me as a Canadian. But as a big fan of Mouat and Scottish teams in general, I’ve grown to love their programme. I mean, who wouldn’t have fun cheering for such young, highly successful teams? But I think an interesting topic of discussion could be the longevity of high performance-based athletes, especially in Scotland. Bear in mind, that these are just some of my findings and opinions and that I am not criticizing any country’s program.
Since adopting a HP structure, Scotland/Great Britain have generated some favourable results. Exhibit A- Team Muirhead and Exhibit B- Team Mouat. We haven’t even touched upon their mixed doubles results and the rise of some more young talent in teams like Ross Whyte. Despite turning over some quick results, are the results, perhaps, being turned over too quick? A number of the country’s top athletes have hung up the shoes over the past few decades at a comparably young age. Take a country like Canada which does not have a formal high performance program. Yes, we do have the depth in Canada that such a program is not completely necessary. But the same few teams do seem to win all the big events every quadrennial. An alternate argument could be made however that the top teams do receive some extra funding from Curling Canada. More so, our athletes seem to retire at an older age despite juggling other commitments like full-time jobs.
The turnover rate of athletes in Scotland is so high when compared to a country like Canada. Many players are in their forties (we’re looking at you Kevin Koe and Jennifer Jones). And some have been around for even longer (Glenn Howard’s presence in the world top 10 rankings is impossible for me to comprehend. What a legend!) On the contrary, a myriad of top Scottish curlers have retired in their thirties and even twenties. Take Anna Sloan and Vicki Chalmers, née Adams. The two were highly successful, winning a world championship in 2013 and winning bronze at Sochi 2014. But Anna retired at age 27 and Vicki at 29. Even lesser-known players who did well at the junior levels have stepped back from the pro circuit in their twenties. ¾ of the fresh-out-of-juniors team that rep’d the tartan at the 2018 women’s Worlds are now inactive on the pro level. The recognizable Jen Dodds and Vicky Wright were successful products of the team. But now Wright has stepped back, joining Alice Spence and skip Hannah Fleming.
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| From left to right: Tom Brewster, Michael Goodfellow, Scott Andrews, Greg Drummond, and David Murdoch. Image: PA |
Another pattern could be theorized and discussed: are women more prone to an earlier retirement, at least in Scotland? It seems that as of recently, the country’s women have dropped out of the HP program at a sooner rate. Back in 2018, David Murdoch’s team, retired at the ages of 39 (Murdoch), 28 (Drummond), and 28 (Andrews). Goodfellow would retire a few years later, at the age of 32. Tom Brewster would leave the game even later, at age 44. Although 28 is still on par with many of the women's' retirement ages, the men in general retire later than most women this and last decade. This year, Ross Paterson announced his retirement at he age of 38. Eve Muirhead could be an anomaly for the women, since she began to play in the senior ranks when she was still a junior, justifying her retirement a bit more, even at the age of 31. Another reason she is a living legend!
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| Sweden's huge success in many curling disciplines can be attributed to their high performance programme, but significant depth is still a difficulty. Image: Getty Images |
Scotland could be compared to their European neighbours in Sweden. The only difference: the talent pool. The Scot’s probably come second to Canada when looking at curling participation relative to population. I haven’t seen any stats, but the country’s top two teams in Niklas Edin and Anna Hasselborg have stressed the fact that their country lacks any sort of depth, even with their miraculous results. The players of teams Edin and Hasselborg have endured so much, including starting families and numerous surgeries. Yet, they’re still going strong with many of them in their mid thirties. To the extent of my knowledge, national associations from countries such as the US and South Korea also have national programs designed to bring results. However, their programs seem less intense and less strict than their British counterparts.
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| Countries like China have reached out for international coaching to bolster their chances improve the longevity of their curlers. Image: Alamy |
Speaking of young retirement ages, the nature of the HP program can really a bite an association in their back if they haven't invested enough in nurturing the next generation of youth, or even supporting their current roster. Regardless of whether or not a specific training program or lack of depth was to blame, certain countries have struggled fielding consistent world-class teams. Take China for example: many of us know Wang Bingyu, who guided her team to a women's World Championship in 2009, just seven years after the country gained membership into the WCF. The Chinese program has netted many great players, with the country's peak being from around 2008 to 2014. After this, the program has failed to retain many of their top athletes. Many teams, which are individually assembled for each world championship, have new faces popping up all the time. The country has struggled with a high turnover of curlers, with worthy players only spending a few years at most at the elite level. Since then, the association has reached out internationally for more help, notably recruiting Italian Marco Mariani and Tomi Rantamäki from Finland to improve their outcomes. Some young faces have shown promise, with the women's teams skipped by Han Yu/Wang Rui in particular making strides at the 2021 Worlds and 2022 Olympics, beating the likes of Anna Hasselborg, Eve Muirhead, and Jennifer Jones.
So overall, are high-performance programs unsustainable? In terms of getting results, they may not be. Do they create a low retirement age for athletes? Debatable. In Scotland it seems to be true, but countries like the United States and South Korea may beg to differ. Why is there such a high turnover rate in Scotland? Don’t know, but there could be many factors. The rigorous schedule and endless shuffling of team lineups could be some. Are women more susceptible to an earlier retirement? One reason could be wanting to spend more time with family, as I would imagine curling while pregnant to be no cakewalk. But they do seem to have a shorter life span as of recently. Our sample size is fairly small though, we've discussed athletes that have been active in the last decade or so. Perhaps we could even run an experiment with the Scottish teams with the women’s teams of Farmer, Henderson, Blair, and Morrison and the men’s teams of Whyte and Craik.
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| Two of Britain's best curlers have exited the elite ranks of the sport in style. Image: Andrew Milligan/PA |
Only two medals were won by Great Britain at Beijing 2022. Each of the ten athletes that medalled have had similar sporting careers and experiences leading up to the Games, with three of the women's curlers retired and the other two absent from the elite four-person game (for now). Although I've so far enjoyed what the HP program has offered, time will tell how long the remaining athletes will persist on the world's biggest stage.
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