Winter Olympics: The 19 Scots to watch in Beijing and the controversy surrounding the host venue

Kirsty Muir in action at the Women's Freeski Slopestyle Final during day 9 of the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympics at Leysin Park & Pipe on January 18, 2020 (Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

Draconian Covid protocols have built a Great Wall around the showpiece with foreign fans barred and the spectre of lengthy quarantines for a positive test looming large over all in attendance.

Throw in too stonewalled questions over China’s dreadful record on human rights - and indictments of ‘sportswashing’ lobbed towards the IOC.

Calls for a boycott have been resisted but it has maintained the debate over whether these issues should be factored into the choice of hosts for major events. “I'll definitely be aware of it,” noted Andrew Musgrave, one of the trio of cross-country skiers bred in Aberdeenshire. “I think that it is something that needs to be thought about.”

Skip Eve Muirhead will be hoping to medal with her curling team of Vicky Wright, Dodds and Hailey Duff. (Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Athletes have been warned that there is no guarantee that the nation’s authorities will not seek to punish, or at least inflict some discomfort upon, those choosing to speak out.

“All we can do is guide the athletes on local laws and the IOC regulations and make sure they're very clear on that,” insists the British Olympic Association’s chief executive Andy Anson. “But, we're not going to be the ones stifling their freedom of expression.”

Principles aside, there is a uniqueness about Beijing as the first city to welcome both a Summer and Winter Olympiad, 14 years apart. Swimming’s Water Cube from 2008 has morphed into the Ice Cube for curling. Oh, and the show is 99 per cent artificial.

However, for the 19 Scots on a 50-strong British team, from 17-year-old debutant Kirsty Muir to fourth-timers such as Musgrave, his colleague Andrew Young and past medallist, curler Eve Muirhead, they will enter the bubble bursting with enthusiasm and hope that the performance of their lives awaits on the biggest stage imaginable.

Curling

Double-chasing Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds get the ball rolling – in this case, stone sliding – for the whole British team on Wednesday when the mixed doubles curling begins. World champions last year, the childhood chums both began their journey at Edinburgh’s long-demolished Gogar Park rink but have headed East as favourites.

“Coming into the Olympics, you've almost got a target in your back now that teams know they have to raise your game against you,” Dodds acknowledged. “And they will.”

Useful intelligence will also be gathered on the nuances of the Beijing ice for the subsequent men’s and women’s competitions. “If anyone got told that they could practice for a week, and get information, then they would take it and grab it with both hands,” Mouat underlined.