As we head to the polls today for what now seems the annual occurrence of a vote that will determine the state of Scottish self-confidence a sport invented in this country offers encouragement.

The sub-text of our contemplations these past few years has been whether or not we believe Scotland and Scots have what it takes to stand up for themselves while remaining influential in the wider world so, in a year that will see two sports that Scots invented, golf and seven-a-side rugby, claim their places in the summer Olympics the example set by our curlers serves as inspiring.

Unlike our golfers, rugby players and footballers, they have remained properly competitive at global level to the extent that Great Britain alone matched Canada, the sport’s super power, in winning medals at all three disciplines at the last Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

However it is not the performance of our elite players that is relevant here as much as that of administrators, in particular those at the World Curling Federation (WCF).

Having spent a bit of time around the sport since The Herald decided to up its coverage ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi I have yet to meet any senior figures from that organisation. However, surely uniquely among major sports, the WCF is, like the Scottish and British governing bodies, based in Scotland and deserves congratulation for how it has responded to the Olympic challenge of generating greater inclusivity.

A highly technical sport which is dependent upon access to suitable facilities it might have remained an activity at which Canadians, Scots, Scandinavians and Swiss dominated forever, stimulating curiosity, if also some ridicule every four years when placed under the Olympic spotlight.

Assembling and developing competitive four man and four woman teams is a challenging business, favouring those with the existing knowhow, along with other wealthy countries like Russia and the Asian giants who prioritise Olympic success and are consequently prepared to infuse their programmes with vast resources when they identify medal opportunities.

The challenge was to introduce a format, then, that would give others a chance and in doing so the WCF has introduced a new event that has the additional benefit, in terms of the modern Olympic movement, of cross-gender inclusivity.

Mixed doubles had previously been considered a more social activity, a bit like golf’s mixed foursomes which is popular in clubs but non-existent at elite level. Yet it has similar attributes to individual sport where, as Andy Murray has pointed out when observing that Scotland does not traditionally produce tennis players, it is possible for self-motivated individuals to excel, while the format favours more rapid development of the necessary skills with stones placed on the ice at the start of each end and only half as many delivered by participants.

The result of that elevated access could hardly have been better demonstrated as teams competed for Olympic qualifying points for the first time ever last week.

Whereas those contesting this season’s men’s and women’s World Championships comprised the familiar few there were 42 teams at the World Mixed Doubles Championship representing countries in the Middle and Far East, Asia, South America and the Antipodes, as well as Europe and North America.

Nor were they simply making up the numbers, New Zealand finishing second in their pool to reach the quarter-finals, while Brazil managed a couple of victories in theirs.

Having had to change its approach to accommodate mixed doubles’ new status, Scotland did well, knocking out Canada on the way to the semi-finals of this competition for the first time, so claiming valuable Olympic qualifying points.

At one stage, however, Gina Aitken and Bruce Mouat looked to be struggling to make those play-offs, raising the prospect of slight embarrassment since England, a curling outback in as much as there is only one rink in the entire country, had cruised into the quarter-finals.

Having claimed a bronze medal in the B division at the Women’s European Championships in the past Anna Fowler and her brother Ben are a shining example of what can be achieved through enthusiasm and dedication and those selecting British curling teams will have to take notice of their progress.

However, just as happens the other way round in rugby sevens where England are nominated as the team that earns Olympic qualifying points for Great Britain, the Scottish and English teams progressing as they did effectively denied the opportunity to others to get through raising an issue that by no means applies to curling alone since the representation of what we refer to as the Home Unions as separate entities on global football and rugby boards has raised questions in the past.

The dual status accorded the English, Scots and Welsh is simply unsporting and while, so far, we have got away with it, those who tell us we can have the best of both worlds might want to consider just how this looks to the rest of the planet.

In essence it takes us back to the basic point that we can either stand on our own two feet or we cannot.