'The stone of destiny'. Team GB curling as a site for contested national discourse

Abstract

Over the last two decades social scientists have examined the relationship between sport and expressions of nationhood in different national contexts. Research about sport in Scotland has contributed to this broader scholarship. Although Scotland is a semi-stateless nation it is an anomaly since in certain sports it has autonomy on the global stage. Much attention has been given to the ways in which these sports mediate expressions of Scottish nationhood but research has rarely examined the ways that Scottish/British national identities are manifest in relation to British sports teams. This essay examines newspapers' coverage of the 2002 Winter Olympic women's curling competition. The event was won by Britain, but the team were all Scottish and curling is regarded as a Scottish sport. In broad terms the analysis affirms that global cultural practices such as Olympic sports offer the terrain in which to play out the contested national discourse of stateless nations.