The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
PyeongChang hopefuls
OLYMPICS: Team GB curlers peak at right time in bid for gold medals
With a little over two weeks to go until the start of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Team GB’s men’s and women’s curlers gathered at the National Curling Academy in Stirling yesterday for final preparations before heading to their holding camp in Japan.
The 10 athletes were the first Brits to be selected for the Games last summer, and both rinks have shown encouraging signs of peaking at just the right time.
Eve Muirhead’s European gold medallists reached the semi-finals in their final pre-Olympic competition at the weekend, while Kyle Smith’s Olympic rookies were finalists in their last event.
With three members of the Muirhead clan and two of Smith brothers competing for Britain, there is a Perthshire family core.
All but one member of the men’s team are sons of world champions (David Smith and Gordon Muirhead), with the lone exception, Kyle Waddell, hailing from another curling dynasty, his grandfather Jimmy having been a European Champion.
Eve Muirhead was the youngest skip to win an Olympic medal (bronze) in Sochi 2014. This will be her third Games. Team Muirhead’s alternate this time around, Kelly Schafer, comes from Angus.
Eve said: “Having been involved in a number of four year cycles before this one, it is surprising how quickly the Games come around and as a team we have pulled together all of our hard work into this last period to ensure we are the best prepared we can be for the biggest event of our careers.
“Being part of Team GB is a huge honour and we are really looking forward to being part of that big multi-sport environment again.”
For fellow skip Kyle Smith his childhood dream is about to become a reality.
He said: “This has been our dream to compete on curling’s biggest global stage and since selection last June it has been an exciting time for our team.
“We are looking forward to kitting out tomorrow – getting our Team GB kit will be a hugely exciting time for all of us and it is milestones like that that make your realise just how real and close the Games are. “
British Curling performance director Graeme Thompson is confident that the teams are ready for the trip to Asia.
“We are working closely with the British Olympic Association to ensure that our teams are as best prepared as they can be,” he said.
“As part of that we will be heading out to a holding camp in Karuizawa, which is familiar territory for both our teams since they have played in tournaments there previously. So that is the ideal scenario leading into a Winter Olympics in Asia.”
The Olympians also have an opportunity to represent Scotland at this season’s World Championships after the introduction of play-offs with the winners of the Scottish Championships which will take place while Teams Muirhead and Smith are in PyeongChang.
Thompson said: “Historically the winner of the Scottish Champs earns a place at the World Championships, and as the Scottish Champs clashes with the Games it previously meant the Olympic teams could not compete at the Worlds.
“Despite the busy schedule, the athletes wanted the opportunity to compete for that place, so it has been introduced. For now however, their ambitions are firmly set on the Olympic Games and nothing else.”