They came, they curled, they conquered. And, on the very last day of these Winter Olympics, four rock stars finally won Team GB’s first gold medal in Beijing.
Almost 700,000 people were watching back home in the early hours of Sunday morning as Eve Muirhead’s quartet brushed Japan aside 10-3 in the women’s curling final - to complement the silver medal won by the men’s team on Saturday.
The victory also capped a remarkable turnaround for Muirhead - the Iron Lady of curling - and her teammates Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds, and Hailey Duff, who had initially struggled to qualify for these Games.
To make matters worse, they also had Covid before a final qualifying tournament in December, lost four matches in the round robin stages, and only snuck into the semi-finals after other results went their way. Even then they were 4-0 down to Sweden before a stunning turnaround.
Yet when the stakes were at their highest, Britain’s women played it ice cool.
“It’s definitely been a rollercoaster journey for the whole team,” said Muirhead, who burst into tears of relief on the podium. “For me it was a very tough summer with the pandemic, with lockdown, with not initially qualifying for the Olympics. There were days when I just wanted to throw my shoes in the cupboard and not take them out again.
“But we all came back, we had this new team put together, we then won the Europeans and then the Olympic qualifying tournament. There have been ups and downs, there has been a couple of positive tests, but here we are, five very healthy girls with gold medals round their necks.” Afterwards their coach, David Murdoch, gave a succinct assessment of what he had witnessed. “It was a perfect performance,” he said.
It also provided a much needed fillip for Team GB after a Winter Olympics in which a bobsleigh overturning at 83mph and a speed skater stopping a lap too early had threatened to become the defining images of its Games.
Now, though, it will be the sight of Muirhead dramatically clearing out a Japanese stone to score four for Team GB in the seventh end - which effectively sealed victory - that will linger longest in the memories.
Four years ago the Scot had fluffed a straightforward shot to win bronze against Japan but missed. This, though, very much felt like a redemption rock. “It took me a long time to get over it and even now I still think of that shot,” admitted Muirhead. “Hopefully it will be out of my mind now.” GB curling’s performance director, Nigel Holl, attributed the unprecedented success in Beijing to the building of a national centre in Stirling in 2017. Since then the British teams have been able to train full-time, which gives them a significant advantage over many rivals.
Holl also cited the introduction of a squad system, which meant nine women had to fight each other for four places, as way of increasing the level of competition and standards.
Another standout star of the British team was Wright, who has combined her sport with helping Covid patients. Having returned to nursing full-time during the pandemic, she still works one day a week at Forth Valley Royal hospital in Larbert, and said she would be back on the wards next week.
“They would have stayed up to watch last night,” she said. “I can’t wait to see them when I go back. I told them I’d do my best to bring a medal back and to take a gold one, I can’t believe it.”
This victory was also hailed by Rhona Howie, whose “stone of destiny” brought Britain’s last curling gold medal at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. “They never had it easy here, they had to fight all the way,” she said. “That’s where the true grit and determination that Eve has comes in. She’ll never stop fighting. Like we did 20 years ago, you get given that chance and my goodness you take it.”
However, despite a late run of success, Britain’s two medals still fell short of the target of between three and seven for Beijing. Afterwards the chief executive of UK Sport, Sally Munday, admitted she was “disappointed” by the overall performance.
“It’s fair to say that these Games have been a setback in Great Britain’s Olympic success story,” she said. “We’ve taken some blows. And I think probably you could liken us to a wounded lion. We will go away, we will lick our wounds. But please be assured we will come back and roar stronger for Milan-Cortina in 2026.”
Munday refused to be drawn on whether there might be cuts to programmes such as skeleton, which received £6.4m to prepare for the Beijing Games only for its athletes to be way off the pace, saying there would have to be a comprehensive review first.
Skeleton is seen as particularly vulnerable as there are no tracks in the UK for people to try the sport, while the enormous tech advantage Team GB once had looked to be completely eroded in China.
“We mustn’t lose sight of some of the exciting performances that we have seen over these two weeks and that does offer us some optimism,” said Munday, who said she hoped to see an increase in the £28m budget for these Winter Games. “It’s important for me to say that the last two weeks have not altered our ambition to become an ever greater force in winter sport.”
