The 10 Scottish curlers who are representing Team GB in Cortina right now are professional athletes.
From the start of July until the end of April – when they are not at a competition somewhere in the world – they will report to the National Curling Academy in Stirling every weekday morning to start training at 08:00.
Each day includes two two-hour ice sessions and one in the gym.
Across a week, three of those gym stints are strength-based and two conditioning. Most athletes will add another at the weekend, just to keep themselves right.
They are supervised – no sitting on a bench next to the weights while doomscrolling for this lot – and are specifically designed with curling in mind.
“It’s Olympic lifts we’re doing – clean and jerk, snatches, squats, the lot,” says men’s lead Hammy McMillan. “And we’re using ski machines, rowers, and assault bikes to really condition our bodies.”
“The numbers we put up, I don’t think people would expect them,” adds Bobby Lammie, who is credited alongside McMillan as having changed the physicality expected of sweepers.
“It’s allowed us to separate ourselves slightly from the rest of the world.”
Similar can be said of the women’s game, where 2022 gold medallist Jen Dodds – one of the world’s best with a brush – is lifting just as much as some of the men.
“More than me, to be fair,” admits men’s vice-skip Grant Hardie.
“Jen is incredible in the gym,” adds Team GB women’s skip Rebecca Morrison, who takes a slightly different view of the physical work.
“You need a lot of core strength to even stay upright on the ice,” she says.
“Maybe we’re not flinging ourselves off massive jumps or sliding down a track at 80 miles per hour, but it’s a lot harder than people realise to even keep your balance.”
Add in tactical and analysis sessions, meetings with sports psychologist and nutritionists, and physio, and the days quickly become filled.
In May and June, most of those demands disappear, but the strength and conditioning work continues every weekday morning.
At some point during that spell, a couple of weeks are permitted for a holiday, but then the curlers are back at it.
“It’s a full-time, all-year round job,” says BBC Sport pundit Vicky Wright, who won Olympic women’s gold in Beijing four years ago and is married to head coach Greg Drummond.
“May and June are supposed to be your recovery time – and you get a break at some point during those months – but you never have an actual holiday from it. You’re curling 44 weeks a year, easily.”
Source link
#Winter #Olympics #curlers #theyre #Games
