CURLING GREAT
AS ICE queen Eve Muirhead packed her bags for Beijing to compete in her fourth Winter Olympics, she promised her mum Lin she won’t come home with a new tattoo.
But that promise may be broken if she wins gold.
The curling legend had the five colours of the Olympic rings tattooed on her lower back after competing in her first winter Games, in Vancouver in 2010.
After winning a bronze medal at Sochi in 2014 she had the design from the prized gong inked on to her left wrist.
But the heart-wrenching disappointment of finishing fourth at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang meant she returned to Scotland in no mood for getting a new tattoo after her third Games.
Four years on, she has told her mum she is done with body art – but her promise isn’t quite written in stone.
Super skipper Muirhead is happy to be a female sport role model but hasn’t ruled out getting more body art to mark her appearance in a fourth Winter Olympics
Eve, 31, of Perth, said: “I’ve already got two Olympic tattoos – one I got after Vancouver and the other after we medalled in Sochi.
“I got them both very spur of the moment. One minute I’ll decide, ‘I think I get that’ and before I can change my mind, I’ll be in getting it.
“I’ve promised my mum that I’m not getting any more – but we’ll see. It depends how we get on.”
Eve, who became the youngest curling skip in history to win an Olympic medal, admits going to her fourth Games is beyond her wildest dreams.
She said: “I don’t know how many people have competed at four Winter Olympics, but I know it’s pretty rare.
“When I went to my first Olympics in 2010, I could never have imagined that 12 years on I would be at my fourth.
“I’ve learned so much since 2010, both as an athlete and as a person.
“My best Olympic moment has to be stepping on the podium at Sochi, while finishing fourth at Pyeongchang was the worst – we were literally an inch away from getting a medal.
“It’s been 12 years of hard work, and that’s a long time to stay at the top of your game and a long time to stay chasing your opponents. But it’s so exciting and I just can’t wait to get on a plane and get out there to Beijing.”
Eve heads to China on February 2 as skipper of Team GB’s female curling team.
Her teammates Vicky Wright, from Stirling, Jen Dodds, from Edinburgh, New Zealand-born Hailey Duff, from Forfar, and alternate Mili Smith, also from Stirling, are Olympic debutants.
A disappointing performance at the World Championships in Calgary last year meant the team only secured their Olympic slot after winning the European Championships in Lillehammer, Norway, in November.
Encouragingly they beat reigning Olympic champions Sweden and world champions Switzerland on the way.
Eve said: “It’s nice that I’ve got four girls in the team who have never been in an Olympics before, so in a way I’ll get to experience that newness with them.
“My advice to anyone at their first Olympics is simply to enjoy it, and don’t get phased by the limelight.
“Right now our priority, aside from training, is dodging Covid bullets. If any of us get it now there would be a pretty slim chance of being clear of the virus in time.
“I’ve been so boring – driving back and forth to training. Other than that, I’ve just been staying at home. I’ve not seen my family – my parents and brothers – since Christmas. Little things like that make it tough, but it’s worth it.
“It’s only a few weeks of sacrifice compared to all the time we’ve worked so hard to get where we are.
“It was interesting watching the lead-up to the Australian Open and what happened with Novak Djokovic.
“I read somewhere that he’s probably the first sportsperson to be thrown out of an event for not taking drugs.
“What he’s done, or not done, vaccinewise, is his choice. I’ve had both my vaccines and my booster and that’s my choice.”
While Eve doesn’t share the Covid vaccine views of Djokovic, she does have a link to the Serbian’s tennis rival Andy Murray.
In the wake of the 2018 Winter Olympics she underwent hip surgery – like fellow Scot Andy – after suffering years of pain.
Eve, who trains in Stirling, said: “I’ve never met Andy but we had very similar hip operations. I had a bit of bone spur and a labral tear, which needed work.
“I watched the documentary Andy made about his injury, Resurfacing, and it was really quite scary how similar our injuries were.
“It was tough, but as a professional athlete you have to accept you are going to have injuries and niggles. They are the price you pay for what you put your body through.
“You would be very lucky to play the amount of games I have and come out of it unscathed. It’s the same when you look at tennis and Andy.”
Eve, who has become the poster girl for British curling, is from a family of champion curlers. Her father, Gordon,