But this summer, that’s exactly what Grant Hardie did.

Having spent nearly a decade as a key member of Team Mouat, during which time the quartet of Scots won two world and four European titles, two Olympic silver medals and a dozen Grand Slams, Hardie established himself as one of Scotland’s most decorated-ever sportsmen.

But, in the weeks and months following the 2026 Winter Olympics, at which Hardie was part of the GB men’s team which won silver for the second consecutive Olympics, he made a life-changing decision.

Hardie left Team Mouat and formed his own team, becoming skip of Team Hardie alongside Ross Whyte, Craig Waddell and Euan Kyle. Walking away from Team Mouat was, admits the 34-year-old from Dumfries, an agonising decision, but it was a move he felt he just had to make.

“There was a lot of emotions involved with the Olympics and afterwards, I had to give myself time to decide what I wanted to do in my future. There were conversations with my family about whether I should stop curling or whether I should continue but, ultimately, I wasn't ready to walk away from the sport yet,” Hardie explains.

“So when I decided I wanted to keep playing, it was about working how that looked. And another four years with the same team just wasn't something I was motivated for.

Grant Hardie (second from right) was part of Team Mouat which won Olympic silver earlier this year (Image: Julian Finney/ Getty Images)

“I absolutely loved the nine years I had with Team Mouat - it was a lot of good fun, I made some great friends and we were obviously very successful. But I needed something to really excite me.”

In the immediate aftermath of his departure from Team Mouat there were, admits Hardie, more than a few doubts as to whether or not he’d made the right choice. But, ultimately, despite the astonishing success he’d achieved as third in Team Mouat, he knew a change was exactly what he needed.

“It was daunting stepping away from Team Mouat,” he says.

“When you look at the success we'd had, you could argue it's four of the best players in the world in each position. So I did question myself and wonder, am I silly to walk away from that when I know how good these guys are? So it was a big decision and a difficult decision but I knew this move was the right thing for me.”

With Hardie moving from third to skip, he’s had to adapt to playing in a different role from that to which he’d been accustomed for nine years. But the switch is a challenge he’s relishing.

“Training has been really fun and I've enjoyed trying to figure things out. When you start a team, it's about trying to learn so many new things and I feel like we're making progress already,” he says.

“As skip, there is a bit of extra responsibility in terms of deciding how we're training, what we're working on and what direction to take the team but I’m enjoying that.

“In Team Mouat, we had each pretty much mastered our own positions and I knew exactly what I was doing at third whereas now, it's a new challenge for me learning how to skip better because you can't switch off at all in that position.”

Hardie’s new teammates of Whyte, Waddell and Kyle are by no means novices in the curling world, though. As part of Team Whyte, this trio were consistently ranked inside the world’s top 5 having climbed as high as second, won two Grand Slams and World championship bronze and so Hardie admits the fact he’s joined forces with truly world class players, with whom he already had a good relationship, has made the transition as smooth as it could possibly have been.

Grant Hardie has set high targets for his new rink (Image: Mattia Ozbot/ Getty Images)

Their early-season form has been hugely encouraging, with a runner-up place at the Euro Super Series, as well as victory at the AMJ Shorty Jenkins Classic in Canada and next week, Team Hardie will hope to continue their good form as they head into their first major championship together as a rink.

On Tuesday, the European Curling Championships begin in Ostrava in Czech Republic, with Team Hardie the top-ranked rink in the draw. And so, despite the fact this is their first European Championships together, Hardie and his teammates go into this event with lefty ambitions.

“We had a goal setting conversation a couple of months ago and one of the guys suggested that with it being our first Europeans, maybe the objective should just be winning a medal,” reveals Hardie.

“But I said, ‘boys, we're going in there as the top team and I think we'd all be disappointed with anything less than gold. So I think we should set the bar high and aim to win. And straight away, everyone agreed. So our objective is gold - we’ll now just have to see how that goes.”

Whilst European gold may be Hardie’s short-term goal, longer term, his targets are even more ambitious. Team Hardie will be battling with Team Mouat for selection for all the upcoming major championships as well as Olympic selection and while Hardie is under no illusions as to how tough a task it will be to get the better of Team Mouat over the coming months and years, he’s confident the competition within Scotland will push to increase the standard of play of his rink and, ultimately, he hopes, drive them on to winning the one medal missing from Hardie’s collection and that’s Olympic gold.

“We’d love to win one of Grand Slams this season, and then a big target for later in the season is to get selected for the World Championships,” says Hardie.

“The next four years battling against Team Mouat, and Team Waddell, is going to be very tough and, ultimately, our target is to be at the Olympics in 2030.

“Team Mouat and us could end up being number one and two in the world at some stage because at the moment we're two and three and so that is crazy to think about but that is the standard of curling in this country.

“And I think having each other is just going to help both teams go up another notch - we have a friendly competitiveness - on the ice, we want to beat each other but as soon as we step off the ice, we’re good friends again so it’s a good balance to have.”