Two former world champions are among three new coaches appointed to the British curling programme as its re-structuring continues.
Working under Tony Zummack, the newly appointed head of coaching, Sheila Swan, a member of Jackie Lockhart's 2002 World Championship winning rink, will take over as head coach of the wheelchair squad, while Viktor Kjell, who was part of the dominant Swedish rink that is skipped by Niklas Edin for seven seasons until last year, is one of two coaches appointed to look after the Olympic teams along with Nancy Smith.
In making the announcement Graeme Thompson, the Scottish and British Curling programme's head of performance, expressed particular satisfaction at the emergence of two homegrown coaches in Smith and Swan at the end of what he described as a global search for the best possible candidates.
"We advertised these roles internationally and interviewed candidates from across the world in a rigorous recruitment process," he noted.
"I believe we have and will always seek to make the best coaching appointments, as that is an important factor to the players achieving future success. Within that approach, it is significant and pleasing that two of our full time appointments are Scottish, both already with good international coaching pedigrees which they can now build upon."
As well as her impressive playing CV Swan has a proven track record with the national wheelchair team having coached them to a to a silver medal at the 2011 World Championships when she was involved in an interim capacity and she also coached the Scottish women's team to a gold medal at the 2007 Junior World Championships.
Smith also has a strong track record in the women's game having been team coach when Eve Muirhead's rink won silver at the 2010 World Championships and she has attended 10 World Junior Championships as either team or head Coach, winning two gold, one silver and four bronze medals, while she has most recently been working with her brother David Murdoch's Olympic silver medal winning rink over the past season in her role as a Royal Caledonian Curling Club performance development coach.
Kjell's recruitment meanwhile brings up to date playing experience since the 29-year-old, who is significantly younger than some of the British men's squad, won a bronze medal at what was his second Winter Olympics last year and won golds at the 2009 and 2012 European Championships as well as at the 2013 World Championships
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