Eve Muirhead: Team GB curling skip spurred to Olympic glory after pain of Pyeongchang
Eve Muirhead has spoken about how she has endured a difficult time during the pandemic, the support she has received, and the weight of responsibility on her shoulders at the 2018 Winter Olympics; "I blame myself for that"
Last Updated: 22/02/22 11:51am
Eve Muirhead, who claimed a first Olympic gold at her fourth Games, has revealed how she has bounced back from the pain of crumbling under the weight of responsibility on her shoulders at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games to finally winning gold in Beijing.
Muirhead's team staged a great escape against Sweden in the semi-finals and then thumped Japan in the final to earn Olympic gold at the fourth time of asking.
Victory for the women added to the men's silver won by Bruce Mouat and company to claim Great Britain's first curling gold medal since Rhona Martin's famous triumph in 2002.
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Muirhead admitted the pain of losing to Japan in the bronze medal match four years ago still leaves a bad taste in her mouth.
The Scot threw the last stone of the 10th end, but instead of scoring two points for the victory - or even one to force an extra end - her shot pushed a Japanese stone further into the house to seal defeat.
"The pandemic was hard for me and there were times when I wanted to throw my shoes away and not get them back out again but I learned a lot about myself and I had fantastic support staff that helped me get through," Muirhead told Sky Sports.
"Thank you to National Lottery for their funding to allow me to be a full-time curler and get my dream but I think it's sweet when you have a bit of a rollercoaster and at the end of the tunnel there is always light. For us, it's a gold medal and it's such a fantastic time.
"The 2018 bronze medal game was very hard to take like when you have a shot as a skip to win and you miss, you take a lot of responsibility yourself and I blame myself for that.
"At that time I didn't know whether to come back or not but here I am. To have lost two semi-finals at the Winter Olympic Games and to finally won one and to go on to win the gold, I guess it makes all those semi-final losses a little sweeter."
'A dream come true'
Muirhead bounced back, leading her team to a famous 10-3 victory over Japan for one of the most lopsided women's finals in Olympic history.
"For me, it's like a dream come true. From a young age, it was always something that I always wanted to do and as a team we have come so, so far," she said.
"If you look back at the last couple of years we didn't even qualify through the World Championships to get a part of Beijing and then we got a squad system put together and topped the Olympic qualifier and here we are now as Olympic gold medallists.
"I really couldn't write it, to be honest. It's been a rollercoaster, but I wouldn't have it any other way."
