The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Muirhead composure impresses coach
Courier Country to fore in curling competition
Glenn Howard says Eve Muirhead is having to keep his feet on the ground as he achieves his Olympic ambition.
A four-time world champion, he never won the Canadian Olympic team trial. He lost to Kevin Martin in the final trial in 2010 so couldn’t compete in his home Games in Vancouver, watching on the television as Martin took gold.
Now tactical coach to Eve Muirhead’s rink, he admits he has to pinch himself as he strolls around the Olympic Village.
“I’ve brought a bit of a tactical strategy and experience. I haven’t been to an Olympics but I’ve played some big games and I can tell a lot about what they’re going to feel and experience.
“All the girls have been an absolute dream to work with. They are very respectful and Eve herself is one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet.
“Underneath that sweet veneer she’s a fierce competitor and wants to do everything possible to win.
“She’s had two Games already, there’s nothing here that’s going to surprise her. As a newbie like me you’re coming in with your eyes wide open and you’re taking it all in, but she’s just treating this as another Olympic Games.”
David Smith was British skip when curling was an exhibition sport at the 1988 Games in Calgary, while Gordon Muirhead was the second in Hammy McMillan’s team at the 1992 Alberville Olympics.
Five of their children – half the team – are in PyeongChang, a remarkable achievement for two farming families living just 50 miles apart.
While men’s skip Kyle Smith wants to fly under the radar, Eve Muirhead has asked the British public to give her a nickname as she prepares to upgrade her Olympic curling bronze.
Blair Atholl’s finest is a woman of many talents. She plays golf off scratch, has represented Scotland in four bagpipe World Championships and arrives in Korea as the reigning European champion.
Canada’s men’s skip Kevin Koe is nicknamed ‘The Ninja’ and Muirhead wants a piece of the action too – and it must be something more imaginative than ‘Ice Maiden’.
“I’d be pleased for the public to decide a nickname for me,” she said.
“I haven’t got one that I know of. I’m not sure whether my team-mates secretly have a nickname for me!”
Meanwhile, Kyle Smith is relishing the chance to square up against the gold medal favourites on the opening day.
Koe sunk the reigning Olympic champions, Brad Jacobs’ ‘Buff Boys’ in the Canadian trials, being given the ‘Ninja’ nickname by his team-mates on account of his reputation as a ‘quiet but deadly’ competitor.
The draw for the round-robin stage of the competition saw Smith handed a first day double-header against Canada and fellow contenders Switzerland.
The Perth curler said: “You have to
play everyone so it really doesn’t matter that we play them in our first two games.
“A few years ago we lost four of our first six games and we still made the play-off, and we did something similar at the Europeans and we still won a medal.
“If we make a slow start we won’t panic because we’ve got the belief in our abilities to fight back. If it is where we find ourselves then we can get ourselves out of it.”
Despite their relative inexperience Team Smith – which includes Smith’s brother Cammy, the Muirhead brothers Thomas and Glen, and Kyle Waddell – boast two wins on the World Curling Tour, and the 2013 junior world title.
They ranked consistently high enough over the past seasons to win the Great Britain Olympic berth over David Murdoch, who led the GB side to a dramatic silver in Sochi four years ago.
A farmer like his team-mates, Smith admits his work at home has suffered since his curling prowess required him to spend increasingly large period of his year away from home.
“We combine our farming work with curling but you have to put in the time with our sport and it’s tough to make both things work,” added Smith.
“I’ve not done as much on the farm as I should do because the training has to take priority. We’ll always help out where we can, whether that’s feeding the calves before we go to the gym or doing other odd jobs around the farm.”
Smith’s team open against the Swiss tomorrow then face Canada in the evening, while Eve Muirhead begins her quest for a second consecutive Olympic medal when her rink face the Olympic Athletes from Russia in the afternoon session.