Curling wasn’t cool .. I used to hide my love of sport from my school pals .. I don’t want kids today to have to endure that kind of uneasiness

BIG INTERVIEW

The National Curling Academy in Stirling lies as cold, still and silent as an Arctic night.

From the far corner, though, comes a low rumble as 44 pounds of solid granite grate over the glacier perfection of the ice, a solitary figure sliding elegantly after it on bended knee.

In a world where titles are won and lost on mi l l imetres Eve Muirhead is the last woman standing, consumed by her inexhaustible quest for perfect.

Which, for a girl who used to lie that she’d forgotten her gym kit at school to skive PE, is impressive.

At 27, the Perth-born Stirlingbased poster girl for her sport has never been more driven to chase down Olympic gold.

That would complete the set alongside the World and European ones she has already earned.

And with a multi-million-pound, state-of-the-art facility now at her team’s disposal 24 hours a day to fuel that journey to Pyeongchang, thanks to sportscotland and with the backing of their Institute of Sport, she’s making the most of it.

Not just for the glory of being on the podium. As much for the opportunity to be seen doing it.

Muirhead, training with her team for the European Championships in Switzerland this week, said: “The Stirling venue is a home away from home. I spend 90 per cent of my waking hours here.

“They talked about having this place for 15 to 20 years and finally we have it. And it has come at a time hopefully to help my career. Any later and I’d have done the majority of what I ever wanted to do.

“It’s hard work. People don’t see the blood, sweat and tears behind the scenes.

“The standards you have to reach are sky high but I love the challenge of pushing myself to the max.

“And I also love the idea of being an ambassador, a role model, especially for young girls in sport.

“If I go back to my own childhood, I remember going to school and lying that I’d forgotten my PE kit, skiving because it just wasn’t cool.

“When I was going off to curl I’d tel l my friends I was doing something completely different because it wasn’t cool to curl.

“I don’t want kids nowadays to have to go through that, to be embarrassed about being into sport. It’s not an uncool thing to do.”

Beneficiaries of career-changing National Lottery funding, Eve and