Bruce Mouat admitted he sought help after his Olympic disappointment – and now he’s only got eyes on gold.
Mouat said defeat in the bronze medal match of the mixed curing with partner Jennifer Dodds left him struggling to sleep.
The pair arrived as reigning world champions and were strongly expected to get Team GB off the mark in Beijing - eight days later they’ve yet to make a single podium.
All of which throws the pressure back on Mouat, whose men’s curling rink have been an unstoppable force in recent days.
They booked their semi-final place with three matches to spare and took their winning streak to six matches with a commanding 8-6 over Russia on Wednesday.
“I’m very happy with where I am right now both physically and mentally. I’ve got to admit it was pretty rough after the mixed doubles,” said Mouat.
“I was pretty happy to have day off afterwards and I spent a fair bit of time speaking with our sports psychologist, I was pretty down and I didn’t sleep much.
“Talking always helps process things. They really helped me to refocus and regroup and I certainly needed that. They reminded me how much I loved curling and what it means to be playing at the Olympics and living my dream.”
Head coach David Murdoch knows what it’s like to taste defeat on the Olympic stage, losing a bronze medal match in Turin, before winning silver eight years later in Sochi.
However, he claims he never had any doubts about Mouat’s ability to bounce back, or the way he’s inspired his rink by example.
“We knew Bruce would just bounce back because he is so strong. Never underestimate how strong he actually is,” he said.
“He’s worked really hard on his psychological robustness and it shows. As soon as he comes into the team environment, the team love him. They’ve got that real togetherness so that he can actually just park something and move on.
“If that’s a bad game he moves on quickly and that’s really great from a coaching point of view.”
One more win, in their final round robin game against Canada on Thursday, and Team GB will top the standings - and get crucial final stone advantage in the knockout matches.
Mouat also paid special tribute to Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan for keeping him grounded as they continued their impressive charge through the round robin matches.
“In curling all the attention gets paid to the skip but I only do 25 percent of the job,” he added.
“The guys on this team are great curlers and even better friends and we’re just loving being together.
“I don’t feel any extra pressure, we’re not thinking about being medallists, we’ve got a couple more games to win first. We’ll be throwing everything at it to get Team GB that medal. We’re just enjoying playing together and loving the experience.”
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