SPORTS FILE
Nine years, two Winter Olympics and a string of World Curling Championships may have passed.
But Eve Muirhead can still recall the f inal few moments of her recordbreaking day in rueful detail.
“I missed a tiny little putt on the last and bogeyed the 17th,” she said. “Maybe if I hadn’t, I’d still have it.”
It being the course record at Pitlochry Golf Club which the 27-year-old – who carded a 68 – only lost last June to a school friend.
When Muirhead, an Olympic bronze medallist in Sochi, describes herself as “super competitive” it is clear she isn’t exaggerating.
Curling won the battle of which sport she would pursue professionally and with a third Olympics on the horizon the decision is paying dividends.
Only last week, though, was the success of Muirhead’s women’s rink – and that of David Murdoch’s silver medallists – at the last realised.
Muirhead was among the first to throw stones at Scotland’s new national curling academy in Stirling, an idea that has taken time to come to fruition.
So long in fact that the daughter of 1999 world champion Gordon had only just thrown her first stones at her local ice rink in Pitlochry, aged just nine, when the plans were first mooted.
The Atholl rink closed its doors nine years ago last month so Muirhead knows a new multi-million pound facility on her doorstep – while a massive boost to the sport – isn’t a case of job done.
She said: “When you look back at how many world-class curlers Atholl ice rink produced, it was phenomenal. So many world champions, so many European champions, so many Olympians – and it was sad to see it close the doors.
“Rinks closing are stopping young ones from getting opportunities. We n e e d mo r e faci l ities – that’s the b o t t om line. You are never going to generate the next generation with a lack of facilities.
“It’s f ine for us getting the new national academies but the only good thing about that is it is maybe going to spare up some ice at the other rinks for people to come to try.
“There will be more available, which is a good point. But there is still a lack of facilities.
“But this is a good start – a new national academy, which has been in the limelight for about the last 20 years but finally the doors have opened.”
Muirhead knows a thing or two about the limelight.
The youngest female skip to win the World title, leading her team to victory aged just 22, she has been pigeonholed as a poster girl for the sport.
“No, not really,” she said with a laugh when asked if she sees herself that way. “But the sport does need a role model. Winning the medal in Sochi has opened a lot of doors to get people involved.
“Viewing figures have gone up and people tell me they saw the Winter Olympics then went and gave curling a go.
“They got hooked on it because it is an exciting sport to watch.
“You watch for two hours a game and it all comes down to the last 10 seconds whether you win or lose. It can come down to an inch or a millimetre.
“It is great to know I built that publicity for the sport. But a poster girl? Not really – not at all actually.”
That hasn’t stopped the media calling her the “ice queen” ever since her selection as British skip for an ill-fated Winter Olympic campaign in Vancouver in 2010. She said: “At least it’s not a bad headline – it could be a lot worse ... apart from Vancouver when we ended up going out and the headline was ‘ The ice queen has melted.’”
The Perth-born curler will not be the only Muirhead making headlines at the Winter Olympics come February.
Her brothers Thomas and Glen – who also run a sheep farm – have been included in the men’s rink jetting out to South Korea.
Muirhead, whose PyeongChang preparations got under way last week at a month-long training camp, is open to giving her brothers advice. Whether they take her up on it is another matter.
She said: “For people who don’t really know me, I am super competitive – it is just my nature.
“I hate losing whether it’s playing a game at home with my fami ly or on the ice against my brothers. It has been really good for me growing up.
“I guess I probably do have the bragging rights just now and I suppose that it is not going to do them any harm, is it?
“If anything it is going to give them a little fire in their bellies. No brother likes their sister beating them at anything, do they?
“Right now the only bragging rights they have over me is their farm and their sheep! But hopefully it will spur them on and I want it to.
“Deep down we want each other to do as best as we can. We want each other to win and do everyone proud.”
Muirhead was speaking at Falkirk parkrun. To thank the public for their support the UK’s top National Lottery funded athletes will volunteer as tail walkers at parkrun events across the UK on Saturday August 19. Visit www. teamparkrun.com for more information.