Board Approval Of Selection Working Group Recommendations

We write to let you know that at the recent RCCC Board meeting, all of the recommendations provided by the Selection Working Group were approved.

This means that in the next Olympic cycle teams for the World Women’s, Men’s and Mixed Doubles Championships will be decided using a selection process.

Extract:

“Background

For 58 years from 1962 to 2020 the winners of the Scottish (Mens) Curling Championships were not only crowned Scottish Champions, with a handsome trophy and medals, but also qualified to represent Scotland at the World Championships. From their inception, Scotland’s representative for the Women’s World Championships (1978) and the Mixed Doubles World Championships (2008) have been chosen in the same way.

UK Sport has been funding British Curling as the organisation that manages and develops elite curling in Britain since the 2002-2006 Olympic cycle and is currently committed to a funding package of £6.3m for the present Olympic cycle that ends in 2022. This money is ring-fenced for elite training and competition with the objective of ultimately winning Olympic medals. At present all the British Curling supported athletes are Scottish.

Olympic points are gained by performance at the World Championships. The home nations agreed that Scotland should be the points carrier for British Olympic qualification in this Olympic cycle. UK Sport have expressed concern for a period of time that the team who might attend the World Championships, and therefore gain Olympic points, may not always be the best prepared if chosen based on the outcome of one competition – the Scottish Championships.

This led to a request in 2018 by British Curling to the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC) Board to change the process of determining our representative at World Championships……….. “

After careful consideration of British Curling’s evidence and reasoning, the Board decided in favour of
Selection, as it was clear that otherwise, millions of pounds worth of funding for curling was at
significant risk, which would have a serious knock-on effect for the sport in terms of the performance
pathway and profile.

This decision followed an in-depth period of engagement with our members, and we would like to take this opportunity to again thank all those who took the time to join the conversation around this important topic.

The Board also recognised the hard work and thorough approach of the Selection Working Group.

To read the recommendation paper in full, please click here.

Best Wishes,

The Scottish Curling Team