Human Nutrition and Dietetics student helps secure gold for Team GB
A GCU student has shown he has the ability to keep cool under pressure after helping Team GB’s curling team win gold at the Winter World University Games.
First year Human Nutrition and Dietetics student Jack Carrick joined four teammates at New York’s Lake Placid for the bi-annual event, which took place between the 12th and 23rd of January.
After a decade involved in curling, the gold medal marked a new chapter in Jack’s journey.
He explained: “I’m from Dumfries and first got the opportunity to get involved during primary school. There was a programme brought in after Team GB won silver at the 2012 Olympics. I remember actually watching it on television and having the opportunity to try it definitely gave me that spark of motivation.
“I was pretty good at it and that made me enjoy it even more. I continued to play and made some really good friends at Dumfries Young Curlers. A year later, we started doing some under-12 competitions and actually won our first one, which helped us keep going. We continued to progress through different age groups, and obviously some players left and some fresh faces joined over that time.
“We went on to work with the National Curling Academy, which is the first step towards funding. Last year, we moved up to British Curling, which is the national funded programme. I trained in Stirling four times a week with boys from all over the country and then half of us were selected as part of British Curling. The idea is we ultimately make it to the Olympics.”
Jack’s hard work and dedication paid off in May last year when he won gold at the World Junior Championships in Sweden.
2022 also marked the start of his university journey at GCU, with Jack grateful for the support he’s received in helping him successfully navigate his sporting career alongside his degree.
“It’s nice to have the support of the university,” explained Jack. “I’m away at competitions at different points throughout the year and being part of GCU’s Talented Athlete Programme allows me to do lectures online and keep on top of classes while travelling.”
He added: “Studying Human Nutrition and Dietetics is actually very helpful for training and even helping out my teammates who want help with their diet. It’s all worked out very well for me.”
Another personal benefit of his degree is having the opportunity to get involved in the World University Games, an opportunity he’d had his eye on for a number of years.
“I’d been hoping that I’d be able to represent GB at the World University Games. It takes place every two years, but I wasn’t really expecting to get the chance at this stage - I’m very fortunate,” said Jack.
“The selection process is pretty simple; British Curling and Team GB have a chat and basically identify the top athletes throughout British universities. The team with the greatest chance of success is then put forward to compete.”
Jack was selected as ‘fifth’ by team captain James Craik, reuniting the partnership that proved successful at last year’s World Junior Championships.
“James mainly calls the type of shots we play. Curling is a very tactical game and it’s almost like chess in that you’re trying to guess what your opponents going to do. It’s all about positioning your stones in a way where you’re most likely to be closest to the centre at the end.
“There are four people in the team, but to go to a championships you take a fifth man. They’re almost like a reserve or alternative player. They also have to ‘match stones’, which basically means analysing how everything moves along the ice. There are eight stones and each of them has less or more friction. The job of the fifth is to go on in the evening - after everyone else is off the ice - and figure out which stones are fast and which ones are slow.”
Jack and his four team-mates travelled to the freezing cold state of New York to compete in the competition, which saw twelve different sports - including the likes of skiing and snowboarding - across a packed 11-day schedule.
Jack said: “The World University Games is a great event and Lake Placid was a brilliant venue. It was incredible having the fans right next to the ice-rink – the American fans are very loud and energetic. It was also nice that there were multiple different events on. It really made a difference having the likes of GB ice hockey fans there supporting us. There was just a bit more atmosphere than the usual competitions.”
Team GB quickly adapted to their new surroundings and found themselves progressing, despite a demanding schedule.
“There was a round-robin section where we play against all the different countries participating. Four then qualify to the semi-finals and the winners go into the final. It was a very competitive field, but we knew we were in with a good chance,” explained Jack.
“We had a great start, winning all five of our matches. There was then a slip-up against Japan, but after that we went undefeated. We always knew we would be close to qualifying, but weren’t sure who would come up against us.
“It ended up being Canada in the semi-final, who we had actually played and beaten 8-2 earlier that day. They hadn’t played their best, but they really improved in the semi final. Thankfully, we managed to hold out and beat them 6-4.”
That victory set up an enticing final match against the hosts, Team USA.
Jack admitted: “I was a little bit nervous, but I guess that was understandable. We knew our round robin performance had been good against them and definitely took confidence from winning 7-2. We just wanted to make sure we didn’t lose an early lead and let the USA fans get behind them too much. There was maybe about 400 there overall and they were all based over one side of the rink, so it really did create a wall of noise next to the ice.”
Despite the intimidating atmosphere, Jack and the rest of the team managed to avoid any slips ups.
“We really controlled the final and brought home the gold. It was amazing – we couldn’t really believe it in all honesty. Seeing the look on everyone else’s face made it even better. It was just unbelievable!”
Following success at the World Junior Championships last year and World University Games this year, Jack now hopes to find consistency and continue progressing.
“The main aim now is to hopefully qualify for the World Junior Championships again. This is my final year as an under 21, so I want to go and represent Scotland to the best of my abilities. I’m also hoping to get selected for the World University Games again in future – it would be nice to have that feeling of winning another gold at some point.”
By Ross Clark
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