The Royal Caledonian Curling Club has today announced the High Performance Squad Structure for the 2008-09 curling season.

The 3 levels of squads are Regional Academy supported and funded by the Royal Caledonian Curling Club and sportscotland the National Academy supported by the Area Institutes and funded by sportscotland and the Elite Scotland squad supported by the Scottish Institute of Sport (SIS) and funded by sportscotland. 

The Elite Scotland Squad named to receive support from the SIS is made up of individual athletes and teams that will receive full or partial support. As a funded athlete of the SIS, access to sports science, sports medicine, one to one technical support, squad training days and overseas competition funding is made available.

The following athletes are named as funded SIS athletes

Additionally British Curling’s recently announced training squads for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympics Games will be supported by SIS. Six men, six women and six wheelchair athletes have been selected for the squads; they will face a year of intensive training both on and off the ice before the final team selection is made.

The men’s squad consists of Euan Byers, Ewan MacDonald, David Murdoch, Peter Smith, Warwick Smith and Craig Wilson; The women’s squad, Karen Addison, Lynn Cameron, Jackie Lockhart, Eve Muirhead, Lorna Vevers and Kelly Wood and the wheelchair squad, Tom Killin, Rosemary Lenton, Angie Malone, Michael McCreadie, Aileen Neilsen and Jim Sellar.

The National Academy now in its second year will offer support and funding to 7 adult and junior teams. These teams will receive squad days and overseas competition funding, in addition to coaching, sports science and medical support they receive from their local Area Institute. These teams are:

In addition Logan Gray and Alistair Guthrie will receive partial support from the National Academy and along with Ross Paterson will receive support from their local AIS. Anna Sloan and Laura Kirkpatrick will also receive support from the West Area Institute.

The Royal Club’s Performance Development Coach, Rhona Martin commented on the announcement “The National Academy gives athletes the chance to improve all aspects of their game and prepares them to compete on the World Stage”

The RCCC CEO Colin Grahamslaw commented “We are grateful for the support of our partners sportscotland, SIS and the AIS Network. This support means the Royal Club can work with a larger number of athletes to help them reach their full potential.”

54 Athletes have been selected into the Regional Academy which gives them the opportunity to receive a supportive programme to prepare them as they look to progress up the ladder for World Class Potential. These athletes are: