PYEONGCHANG I BELIEVE

Muirhead banks on experience to win gold

EVE MUIRHEAD believes experience will be decisive and insists the pressure of being Britain’s best chance of a fifth

Olympic medal will only inspire her.

The skip – who made her

Olympic debut as a teenager in 2010 – won bronze four years ago in Sochi and today takes on Sweden for a place in Sunday’s gold medal curling final.

Team GB officials need one more medal to achieve their pre-games target and Muirhead, alongside Anna Sloan, Vicki

Adams and Lauren Gray, look the only chance remaining.

“I’ve played three Olympics now, that experience is in the bank. I know I’ve been there and I know what it will feel like,” said the 27-year-old Scot.

“I know what it’s like to lose an Olympic semi-final, that defeat in Sochi was the worst of my career and the hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with.

“I do believe you learn more about yourselves in these situations and become stronger for it.”

In contrast, Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg is making her Olympic debut here and she has history with Muirhead in recent months.

The Scot beat her to win bronze at last year’s World Championship and again to win the European title in December. However, Hasselborg edged their encounter during the round-robin stages and is viewed as one of the sport’s rising stars.

It’s 16 years since Rhona Martin delivered the stone of destiny to win curling gold for Great Britain – a match an 11-year-old Muirhead was allowed to stay up and watch in the early hours.

“We all know what Rhona did for the sport in 2002, she put it on the map and changed everything for the people that followed her,” added Muirhead.

“It’s not a burden, what she did led to the funding we receive and the facilities we get to train on.

“We may not be in this position if it wasn’t for her and, of course, we’d like to do our bit for the Olympians in the future.”

However, the medal hopes of Muirhead’s brothers Tom, 22, and Glen, 28, were ended by a 9-5 defeat to Switzerland in a play-off tiebreaker.

Skip Kyle Smith was downbeat after finishing fifth on his Olympic debut and said: “We gave it our best shot but that’s the dream over.”

Can Eve Muirhead win Britain’s fifth medal? Watch her curling semi-final live on Eurosport 2 at 11am today. Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games at Eurosport.co.uk and the Eurosport app

SHOWING THEIR METAL and the Muirhead (centre GB team won bronze in 2014 Games