The Canadian curler will be renewing acquaintances with the Chinese team, having coached them at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, where they were beaten by Sweden in a tightly fought bronze medal contest.

“It was an absolute thrill and a privilege to be able to participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics, and the opportunity to do that again was simply too good to pass up,” said Rocque.

“Also, now that my kids are a little older, they’ll be able to share this experience with me and my wife at times in the leadup to 2018, and that will make this even more special.

“At the same time, I’ll be able to continue working on my coaching techniques with a long-term ambition of working more closely with Curling Canada and Canada’s curling athletes.”

Following Sochi 2014, Rocque had been acting as a high performance consultant for Curling Canada’s national team programme.

Rocque, who won his world titles in 2002, 2003 and 2005, has has also been a teacher at J. Percy Page High School in Edmonton.

He has been given a two-year leave of absence to take up the role with the Chinese team.

“Marcel is very well-respected within the curling coaching community, and he has an extremely bright future as a mentor to our athletes,” said Gerry Peckham, director of high performance for Curling Canada.

“This will be a valuable opportunity for Marcel to continue to develop his coaching repertoire, and also to contribute to building the sport of curling outside of Canada.”