Winter Olympics: GB's women's curling team eye more success

Forward-looking: GB's women's curling team want more success

Eve Muirhead and her all-Scottish rink of Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton and alternate Lauren Gray ended their Sochi campaign on a high as they beat Switzerland 6-5 to claim a bronze medal.

By reaching the podium, they emulated the curling team of Rhona Martin, Margaret Morton, Fiona MacDonald, Debbie Knox and Janice Rankin who won Great Britain's first Winter Olympics gold for 18 years in 2002 at Salt Lake City.

Muirhead hopes their achievement can also act as an inspiration as they seek further Olympic glory in the years to come.

She told Sky Sports News: "I remember being allowed to stay up late and watch Rhona win that gold medal back in Salt Lake and it was a true inspiration.

"And for me and the rest of the girls these last few years, it's the one medal we've been missing is that Olympic medal.

"And to finally get that dream and get the Olympic medals feels great.

"But do you know what, this team isn't finished yet. We've hopefully got a long, more successful career ahead of us.

Make way

"We want to definitely make our way up that Olympic podium.

"But as you say, there's so many people getting involved in curling now and it's great for the sport.

"If we can just keep that expanding and what we can do as a team to help that is win medals and that's exactly what the guys (who won silver) and girls' team have done."

Muirhead secured the bronze by delivering the winning stone but said it was a real team effort to get on the podium.

"It was me that delivered that last stone but if it wasn't for the girls putting together such a great last end for me making my job slightly easier, it was great," she said.

"The last few weeks has been a bit of a roller-coaster out there. We've had some great wins, some tough losses, but to finish on a high makes it even better."

The team went down to 6-4 to eventual champions Canada in the semi-finals and Sloan admitted they had to dig deep to pick themselves up.

She said: "That was definitely the hardest part of the Games. To lose that semi-final and to realise that the dream of a gold medal is not going to come true, it was just devastating. We were all completely gutted.

"But I think it really showed our team spirit. We sat down with our coaches and really just had to get our heads screwed on because there was no way we were going home without a medal.

"And I think it really showed our focus and our team support system for doing that."