Perthshire curler in China to begin bid for second world title

People say that sport can be cruel, and never was that more true than for Elise Christie at the last Winter Olympics Her three disqualifications in three events were the talk of Sochi and back home. It was heart-breaking stuff.

I got to know Elise pretty well after competing alongside her for GB in those Games. It’s a lot easier at a Winter Olympics than a summer games because we’re a much smaller group!

What came across was her determination to use the disappointment as motivation for the rest of her career.

Nobody could be prepared for the sort of horrible social media abuse she got after Sochi, so she really had to be made of strong stuff to put that behind her and the memories of failing in her three races.

So I was so pleased for her when I heard she had become a triple world champion at the weekend.

As good as that is, though, a gold medal in Korea next year will be the one she really wants. And, with that determination I mentioned, I’m confident she’ll do it.

Beijing experience

It’s not often I get to compete in a new country these days but the World Championships are my first visit to China.

Hannah Flemings’ team were in Beijing recently so I was able to speak to them about what to expect. My brother Glen has been out here too.

As a team we’re pretty pro-active when it comes to being prepared and we’ve taken extra luggage with essential food in it because a few of us have different allergies and stuff.

It’s definitely a very different culture to any other country I’ve visited. We’ve been staying at a hotel near the airport since we arrived and have had a few days’ training.

Mind you, let’s just say the ice rink we went to practice at was not quite up to the standard of the Dewar’s Centre in Perth!

I think we were the only team to try to source an ice rink before official practice in the competition arena.

Part of the plan in coming across earlier than usual was to get over the jet lag earlier, which has helped.

We’ve also done the sight-seeing bit and visited the Great Wall, which was unbelievable. What a place. And yesterday we hit Forbidden City and went to an acrobatics show. The driving has been a bit whiteknuckle. No rules and no lanes seems to be the way of things.

It will be full-on game mode from today when all our backroom team will be with us and we get official practice.

It won’t come as a shock that all the big teams are here in Beijing.

Rachel Homan of Canada, Betty Wang from China, Alina Paetz of Switzerland and Anna Hasselborg of Sweden will all be very strong. And the list goes on.

This is my seventh championships and it’s probably the toughest field I’ve seen. That’s the sort of challenge you expect if you want to be the best in the world.

Let’s finish on a high

Fortunately we were travelling when Scotland were playing England in the rugby. And unfortunately my fears in last week’s column ended up being proved right.

There has been progress, though, and this team deserves to finish on a high against Italy.

Above: the ice rink in Beijing where Eve and her team have been training; below: Scottish speed skater Elise Christie.