McMillan out to defend title amongst stacked field

MCMILLAN SET TO DEFEND CROWN IN TOUGHEST EVER FIELD

It’s truly “interesting times” for current Scottish Mixed Doubles Champion Katie McMillan. Having made her international Mixed Doubles debut with Angus Bryce at the World Championships in Geneva earlier in 2026 she entered a summer where her eye would be on staying competitive across the 4-person and 2-person variants of the game.

However, Angus Bryce underwent surgery on an injury in the summer of 2026 and is undergoing rehab meaning Katie is in the position of being the only reigning champion in this year’s Ambassador Cruise Line Scottish Mixed Doubles Championships. For this years event, McMillan is paired with Archie Hyslop, another real emerging talent in the Scottish game.

However, there is plenty of curling royalty across the 14-team field. Split across 2 groups, the tournament starts today at Curl Aberdeen with the first set of matchers at 2pm. For context – amongst the 28-strong field are 7 Olympians…

McMillan is no stranger to curling success and is already a 3-time Scottish Champion with Team Henderson in the 4-person team event and in a year of debuts also made her World Championship debut with Team Henderson in 2026 – meaning she now has international honours at Junior, Women, Mixed (2 men & 2 women) and Mixed Doubles. Quite an achievement at such a young age.

We were lucky enough to have a short chat earlier in the week as Katie was deep in practice and prep to defend the Scottish Mixed Doubles title.

Q – Are you looking forward to the week ahead? Whats on your mind?

Katie – I’m really excited to get going this week – obviously with Angus out injured I’m paired with Archie this week and it’s been great to get some sessions in with him over the last few weeks. We’ve been training together for a while and really excited to get going at Curl Aberdeen – they always put on a great event so yeah – excited to get going and we’ll put on a good show too!

Q – What’s it like going into an event like this as defending champion?

Katie – Definitely gives me a lot of confidence having had so much success in Aberdeen back in February and at the World Mixed Doubles in April with Angus. We’re delighted to go back again to Aberdeen and it’s really exciting to have title partnership from Ambassador supporting the event and for Curling Stadium Europe to be streaming. Some matches on BBC as well means it’s a great showcase for curling as a whole in the first year of the Olympic Cycle.

We know from previous Scottish Mixed Doubles and the World’s it’s a long week, we know if we can build some momentum and breed some confidence going into the latter stages of the week we know we’ll have a chance of retaining the title and as I’ve said before we want to put on a good show!

Q – You’ve had success in the 4-person game and the Doubles version – what do you take from one version of the game to the other?

Katie – Mixed Doubles vs 4-person have a lot of similarities. I play lead in the 4-person game so draw shots come really naturally but that’s also why I like Mixed Doubles as I can play runs and hits – which I enjoy a lot.
It’s nice to have a different perspective when you’re in the house playing Mixed Doubles as opposed to the 4-person game. It’s a really different role for me in both disciplines but I love playing them both and fitting them into my season is really important for me.