SEVEN YEARS after Rhona Martin led Great Britain to curling gold at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Anna Sloan of Lockerbie hopes that she too can stand atop the podium on the world stage. "We're going over there to win," Sloan said of the upcoming World Junior Curling Championships in Canada, before adding "as long as we perform to our best abilities and reach a good consistency."
Sloan, a first-year sport and active lifestyle promotion student at Glasgow Caledonian University, will not be the only member of her family at the event, which takes place in Vancouver from March 13 to 15, as both her brother and cousin will be comp
eting for the Scottish men's team. Thomas Sloan and Graeme Black, like her, are Scottish junior champions.
In February this year Sloan led Great Britain to the gold medal at the European Youth Olympic Winter Festival in Slask-Beskidy, Poland. She said: "It was great to win such a big competition and meet so many people from other countries." Sloan, who was reinstated as skip for the tournament after a year without the responsibility, said: "It was good to get back into the position as it is something I really enjoy."
That team was coached by Debbie Knox, who was part of Martin's victorious 2002 Olympic team. Knox's experience was integral to Team GB's success last month: "She'd been there and done it, especially with the media. She is great tactically too", Sloan says of her mentor.
Knox will not be her coach in Vancouver; instead Isobel Hannan will guide the team and Sloan will be vice-skip. "Isobel's been great, a really important person in my career," she says.
The 18-year-old has been playing the sport since her mother Christine, a former curler herself, took her along after school when she was nine. Since then she has thrived. "I just really enjoy going to different countries and meeting lots of people of other nationalities, the social aspect," she says. However, she admits that during the winter months the sport takes up almost all of her time. "I go to the gym twice a week, practise once or twice a week and have competitions at weekends. When we have competitions I play four times a week."
Although her winter schedule makes it difficult for her to spend a lot of time with her friends, Sloan "just have to make up for it in the summer!" When she does find time she enjoys horse riding and, like most teenage girls, shopping.
With three years left in the junior ranks her ambition is to win everything she can. Currently Scottish champion, she hopes to defend that title and graduate to the Scottish ladies squad. "From there I want to be selected for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia."
Sloan is planning to do more than just compete at the Olympics, she wants to win. "I want to win everything: the Olympics, World Championships...all that I can."
As well as pursuing gold on the ice, Sloan is also thinking about life after university: "I would like to be a PE teacher or an active lifestyle coordinator, that's what I'm thinking at the moment anyway."
As a third generation curler, after her grandmother, Violet Miller, and mother, it could be said that the sport is in her blood. This, combined with her determination and love for the game, means that in 2014 Anna Sloan may be the new Rhona Martin.
