Ice maiden Muirhead delivers on last stone to keep hopes alive
L Robin Welsh and his rink died without even realising they were true Olympic champions
Eve Muirhead remained ice cool to deliver a shot that kept alive her Olympic dreams – but now she only expects the pressure to increase.
The British skip knew she couldn’t afford to lose to her Swiss rivals, but was trailing 7-6 heading into the final end of an encounter of crippling incremental tension.
She produced the goods with her last stone, meaning qualification for the knockout stages is still all to play for with two group matches remaining.
“I could see about an inch of that stone,” she admitted.
“I train for those shots every day and nine times out of ten I’d make them but it is different when the pressure is on and you’re on the big stage.”
Coach Glenn Howard, a four-time world champion, praised Muirhead’s nerves – but admitted his were shredded.
“That was a pretty tough last shot she played and she buzzed it down like it was nothing. But that’s Eve Muirhead, she makes the clutch shots when it matters,” he said.
Anna Sloan was also in no doubt that Muirhead would deliver with all the pressure on and conceded it wouldn’t get any easier.
“We’ve got two more big games now and we expect them both to go down to the wire again,” she said.
“I’ve always got confidence that Eve is going to take the shot down. She went for it and I just believed she’d make it.
“We’ve been pretty close all week and we’ve not quite got all the wins we needed. We expect these teams to force us to the final end. We’ve got another level to realise yet.”
Match after match at this Olympic tournament is going to the final stone or extra end. It’s certainly not good for those of a nervous disposition.
No team is running away at the top of the standings but no team is struggling either.
Japanese skip Satsuki Fujisawa, whom Muirhead must still face, inflicted a second straight defeat on Sweden’s Anna Hasselborg, the pregames favourite.
And Canadian world champion Rachel Homan – Muirhead’s other remaining opponent – has lost as many games as she has won.
“As a team we knew that every game would be tough but I never expected every match to be so tight,” added Muirhead. “It’s so close and it’s certainly exciting to watch I suppose, with lots of unusual results.”
Meanwhile, Kyle Smith’s British men’s rink were buzzing with confidence after their second straight win, also secured with the final stone, against Denmark. They have won four from seven but next up is Thomas Ulsrud’s Norway.
“We’ve played Norway a lot and they’ve got years of experience in their team,” he said.
“We beat them when we last played at the European Championships but they’ve beaten us plenty of times too. We’ve got room to step it up a little and, if we do that, I think we will be all right.
“After we went to two wins and three losses, we knew we had to win a couple of games and it’s looking much more positive now we’ve had those results against Italy and Denmark.
“We need to keep that same strategy for the next two games now and we won’t be far away.” l Watch Team GB’S curlers in action today on the Eurosport Player and Eurosport 1. Don’t miss a moment of the Olympic Winter Games at eurosport. co.uk and the Eurosport app.
As the mens’ curling competition at the Winter Olympics continues, the British team will be hoping to improve on the silver medal won by Scot David Murdoch’s rink in Sochi in 2014 and claim gold. It will be an outstanding achievement if Kyle Smith and his Scottish rink do so – but they wouldn’t be the first Scots four to win curling gold at the Winter Olympics.
That honour belongs to the team in the inaugural event in 1924 in Chamonix, consisting of Scots Willie and Laurence Jackson, Tom Murray and Robin Welsh. Even if the feat is repeated by Smith’s rink at these Games, there’s one record created by Welsh that will still be beyond their reach – aged 54 and 101 days when he struck gold, Welsh remains the oldest gold medallist in Winter Olympic history. Nor is it likely any will emulate the Watsonian’s sporting pedigree of being an internationalist at rugby and tennis as well as curling.
What makes the tale of the 1924 success fascinating is that for years it was thought that curling was then a demonstration sport and not official. A consequence of that was that the four medallists died without realising they were true Olympic champions.
The background was that after 1924, curling was a demonstration sport at the Winter Games till accorded full competitive status for the Nagano Gamesin1998,leadingtotheassumption that in Chamonix it was also demonstration only. In 2006 scrutiny of the records prompted by sports historians, including Scot Doug Gillon, convinced the Olympic authorities that in 1924 it had indeed been a full competitive event for which medals and an accompanying diploma had been awarded and the Scots’ true status was officially recognised.
The misunderstanding arose partly from the fact the 1924 Games took place under “International Winter Sports Week” banner. This reflected
0 Britain’s curling team take to the ice at Chamonix in January 1924. Right, Robin Welsh and his medal – he remains the oldest gold medallist in Winter Olympic history. the ongoing debate among the Olympic authorities on whether to establish a Winter Olympics given the opposition from Nordic Games countries, the principal winter sports proponents. The following year at the International Olympic Congress in Prague, the decision to create Winter Games was ratified, with the 1924 Chamonixeventbeingretrospectively designated the first Winter Olympics.
The successful 1924 team all had agricultural backgrounds. Tom Murray and father and son Willie and Laurie Jackson farmed in Lanarkshire, while Welsh did so at Liberton Mains, then on the outskirts of Edinburgh. All had excellent CVS, with skip Willie Jackson considered the pre-eminent Scottish curler of the first half of the 20th century. They had won the prestigious Manchester Ice Palace Shield together in 1922, while Welsh had skipped a Scottish team to three wins against the Canadians for the Strathcona Cup. At that time, selection lay in the hands of the Royal Caledonian Curling Club and it was no surprise when they were chosen to represent Britain in Chamonix, with each player having to make a contribution to his own expenses.
Three days before the opening ceremony on 25 January, a Curling Congress was held in Chamonix’s Hotel Majestic to discuss details of the forthcoming competition, where it was decided games would be of 18 ends in round-robin format. Three other teams were due to take part, Switzerland, France and Sweden, but Switzerland withdrew before the opening ceremony, where the Scots marched behind the municipal band, brooms held against their shoulders and curling stone handles hung round their necks on tartan ribbons. In contrast to today’s apparel, the players then took to the ice wearing plus fours, collar and tie and bunnets, while their jackets sported a Union Jack flag patch on one arm.
On 29 and 30 January, the Scots quartet comfortably defeated Swe- den and France respectively to claim the inaugural title despite reservations about the quality of the ice. Later at the Royal Caledonian Club’s agm, it was recorded that “the ice was not good, far short of the ideal ice at Haymarket Ice Rink…” After Chamonix, the winning team members continued at the forefront of the sport with Welsh, at the age of 63, captaining Scotland against England in 1932.
Welsh was a remarkable sportsman from a remarkable sporting family. His first love was rugby. Playing on the wing for Watsonians from 1890 to 1898, he was a member of their multiple championship-winning teams in that period, captaining one successful side. He won four caps for Scotland, three in the Triple Crown-winning side of 1895 and was described in contemporary reports as “lithe and speedy as a greyhound.” Later he ran the touchline when Scotland clinched its first Grand Slam in 1925 and became president of the SRU.
Once he retired from playing rugby, Welsh turned his attention to tennis, at which he also excelled. Twice winner of the East of Scotland championship and finalist several times, he represented Scotland in 1914, aged 45, against Ireland. He also found time to make a significant contribution to Edinburgh’s civic life as town councillor, magistrate and bailie.
His wife, Mollie, was an outstanding tennis player, six times Scottish champion and an accomplished curler. In a short but brilliant athletics career, his brother, Hugh, was twice British mile champion and won numerous Scottish titles. Their cousin, WH Welsh, known as Willie, was a dual Scottish rugby and athletics internationalist, once memorably winning the Scottish 100, 220 and 440 yards titles in one afternoon. Robin’s son, also Robin, was a noted rugby and tennis player and curler, later secretary of the RCCC and the International Curling Federation.
Curling’s inclusion in the 1924 Winter Olympics was a landmark. Given all that has since transpired in terms of doping and other scandals at the Olympics, it is salutary to consider Baron de Coubertin’s words at the Chamonix closing ceremony, “Winter sports have a certain purity about them, that is why I’m inclined to support and nurture them in the Olympic environment.” l Jack Davidson wishes to thank the late sports reporter Robin Morris for his help with this piece.
“At the opening ceremony the Scots quartet marched behind the municipal band, brooms held against their shoulders and curling stone handles hung round their necks on tartan ribbons”