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Tuesday, 15 January, 2002, 11:34 GMT
BBC Sport's Kirsty Hay is a former world junior curling champion and double European silver medallist.
Having enjoyed a variety of sports from an early age, Kirsty began curling at the age of 12, and it quickly became the sport she wanted to concentrate on.
At 17, she won her first national junior title and went on to captain her team to gold at the 1990 World Junior Championships.
This was the first occasion that a Scottish women's team had ever held a world title in curling.
When she won her second world junior gold in 1993 she became one of only a handful of players to have repeated the feat as skip, or captain.
Breaking the barriers of what was then accepted practice, Kirsty also began to compete successfully at senior level while still eligible for junior competition.
She was runner-up at the European Championships in 1992, and gained a further European silver in 1995.
The pinnacle of Kirsty's sporting career came when she captained the GB women's team at the 1998 Winter Olympics, the first time curling had received full medal status at an Olympic Games.
The team narrowly lost out on a medal and finished in fourth position.
Kirsty is now employed by the UK Sports Institute as athlete services co-ordinator but still remains involved with curling through her commentaries at televised events.
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