Bruce Mouat’s Scotland rink are eager to retain their men’s World Curling Championship title after a “very satisfying” year as holders.
The Scots open the 2024 event in Switzerland against South Korea and the United States on Saturday.
Scotland’s Sunday matches with Canada and Italy are live on the BBC Sport website and app, with three further games to be shown during the week.
“The past year’s been really nice,” said skip Mouat.
“Describing ourselves as world champions was something we always wanted to achieve, so over the last year that’s been very satisfying.
“We’re very happy with the way we’ve represented ourselves as world champions and we’re excited to get the chance to retain the title.
“Apart from Hammy [McMillan] it’s the first time any of us have got to play in a men’s World Championship in Europe, so we’re very excited to see what that’s like.”
Mouat, McMillan, Grant Hardie and Bobby Lammie successfully defended their European crown earlier this season – a fourth tournament win in four appearances – but missed out on the Scottish Championship title for the first time since 2017.
In Schaffhausen, the Scots will also meet the hosts, Czech Republic, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Sweden.
Scotland’s round-robin ties with Germany (Tuesday), Japan (Wednesday) and Sweden (Friday) will also be shown on the BBC Sport website and app.
“2024 has been a mixed bag of emotions really with three really good events,” added Mouat.
“We’ve not seen a lot of the teams for a while now, since we won the Grand Slam back in January, but we’re sure a lot of them have been taking the last couple of months to play their nationals and train up for the World Championships, similar to what we’ve done.
“Obviously, this is a big Worlds to be a part of when it’s the first year of Olympic qualification points and a lot of teams are going to be trying really hard to get into the top six or seven, depending on where Italy finish as host nation.
“We’re looking forward to playing them all again and seeing what we can do.”