Pushing boundaries is not what it used to be

Pushing the boundaries used to be a badge of honour in sport, but what’s happened with Team Sky and Bradley Wiggins may have changed that. There was a time when everything Dave Brailsford said was taken as gospel.

His “marginal gains” were seen as the way to get one over your rivals, and Britain was proud to have a man who seemed to be able to give our athletes a head-start.

With all the revelations about Team Sky and its most high-profile cyclist, the trust has gone and pushing the boundaries is now looked on with suspicion rather than pride.

Wiggins may not ever be stripped of his Tour de France title or lose any of his gold medals but the respect he has lost from his peers and the British public is much worse.

His TV interview the other day showed a man who is pretty tortured. And it’s not just him who will be affected, it’s his friends and family.

When I look at any athlete whose achievements have been tarnished I think that, when their head hits the pillow, they’ll know if everything they’ve done has been ethically correct.

Somebody like Alain Baxter, who lost his Olympic medal but managed to establish that his performance wasn’t enhanced by drugs, will know he earned his medal the right way. Will Bradley Wiggins be able to say the same?

‘Character-building’ fortnight

In hindsight, it was probably too big an ask for us to win the play-off for the Worlds against Hannah Fleming last weekend.

Psychologically and physically it was a really quick turn-around from South Korea to Perth. We gave it our best shot after basically 30 minutes of practice on totally different ice and Hannah’s team deserved their win.

We would probably have had a better chance if it had been a normal Scottish Championships, where we could have built some momentum over the course of a week rather than a onegame shoot-out.

I’ve always said that our long unbeaten record against other Scottish rinks couldn’t go on forever and I guess if there was any weekend it was likely to end, it was last weekend.

It’s certainly not been the easiest couple of weeks but I think the term they use is “character building!”

Medal contenders of tomorrow

I’ve been up to Aberdeen for a day to watch the World Juniors.

It’s always good to be able to support the sport when a major event comes to our country, and to give a bit of backing to the Scottish teams.

It’s been a bit of a struggle for the women but the men are in good shape for the weekend.

Keeping an eye on who is coming through from the various countries is never a bad thing either. The transition from top junior team to top women’s team can be quite quick.

As the Olympics showed, new nations are starting to emerge as medal contenders.

Scottish Seniors success

Pushing the boundaries is now looked on with suspicion rather than pride

With all that was going on last week after the Olympics I forgot to mention that my dad (and my old coach Dave Hay) won the Scottish Seniors Championships on the same weekend we were playing our bronze medal match in PyeongChang.

That qualified them for the Worlds in Sweden next month.

At least one Muirhead had a good weekend.

Picture: Getty Images. Bradley Wiggins may not ever be stripped of his Tour de France title or lose any of his gold medals, but the respect he has lost from his peers and the British public is much worse.