Olympic curling medallists hope to inspire next generation

Team GB's Winter Olympic heroes were in Dumfries to encourage young curlers

The south of Scotland has been celebrating its role as something of a Winter Olympic powerhouse.

Five members of Team GB's medal-winning curling teams are from Dumfries and Galloway.

Vicky Wright, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan and Ross Whyte visited Dumfries Ice Bowl in the hope of inspiring future generations.

The arena is currently hosting the Scottish championships which are being covered live by the BBC.

Stranraer's Wright - now a nurse at Forth Valley Hospital - was part of Eve Muirhead's gold medal winning team at Beijing.

Hardie, Lammie, McMillan and Whyte were all in the squad skipped by Bruce Mouat which took a silver at the Winter Olympics.

They were the only medals taken by Team GB at the event and they brought them to Dumfries on Friday to show to local youngsters.

Vicky Wright said it would be great if she could inspire youngsters to take up the game

"It's been so overwhelming, to be honest, it hasn't sunk in at all," said Wright.

"Being back home now and actually seeing everyone it is making it start to feel a little bit more real."

She said it would be great if she could be a role model like Rhona Martin was for her 20 years ago.

She said: "I was speaking to the kids this morning, they were primary six and I was like: 'That was when I started out.'

"If I can be the same inspiration as she was to me back in 2002 it would be amazing."

'Really happy'

Fellow medallist McMillan, also from Stranraer, said the reaction to their achievements had been "insane".

"I don't think we realised the impact we had back home," he said.

"Now it is starting to sink in we are really happy to be standing here with these silver medals round our necks.

"It is something we will look back and cherish."

He said they hoped to go one better in 2026 and win a gold but in the meantime he also hoped more youngsters would take up the sport.

Hammy McMillan said curling enjoyed good facilities and fewer competing sports in southern Scotland

"We are so fortunate in Scotland to have the facilities," he said.

"If you go to trycurling.com and you look for a try curling session you will find one probably within 30 miles of you - down south in England and Wales there are not as many opportunities.

"If we have done one thing - and that's inspire the nation and the next generation to curl - we have done a good job out there."

He said Dumfries and Galloway in particular was lucky to have great facilities in Stranraer, Dumfries and Lockerbie.

He reckoned curling enjoyed greater prominence in the region than it did in other parts of the country.

"When you go to the central belt there is so much more opportunity for different sports," he said.

"We do a really good job down here in Dumfries and Galloway of getting them in and doing great work with Active Schools."