Living the Olympic dream
Balfron curler set for PyeongChang Games
With just two weeks to go until the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, Team GB’s men’s and women’s curling representatives were at the National Curling Academy in Stirling this week for final preparations before they head out to the holding camp in Japan.
While local curling fans will be supporting both teams, Balfron will be cheering on one of their own when Lauren Gray takes to the ice in South Korea on February 14.
The 26 year-old former Balfron High School pupil lives in Glasgow these days but still keeps in touch with her old school friends.
A full-time curler since 2016, Lauren has a degree in English Literature from Glasgow University and worked in the city before making up her mind to devote all her time to the sport.
Lauren already has experience of the Olympics having travelled to Sochi four years ago as reserve in Eve Muirhead’s bronze-medal winning rink.
“I didn’t play at all,” said Lauren, “but it was great to be part of the team.”
She added: “The main job of the reserve or fifth player is to match the stones after matches and this time round we have Kelly Schaefer doing that and she has lots of experience as a player having been at the Olympics in Turin and Vancouver.”
Joining Lauren in the ladies team is skip Eve Muirhead accompanied by her Sochi team mates Anna Sloan and Vicki Adams with Kelly as reserve. The rink won the European Championships in St Gallen.
Team GB’s men is skipped by Kyle Smith and comprises Thomas Muirhead, Kyle Waddell, Cammy Smith and reserve Glen Muirhead. They claimed silver at the European Championships.
Gray joined Team Muirhead at the start of the 2016-17 season and since then she has taken the train from her Glasgow home on a daily basis for training at the National Curling Academy in Stirling where the rest of team live.
“There has been a lot of travelling in the past 12 months,” said Lauren, “mainly to Canada and back but we’ve also been to China and Japan and all round Europe.
“At the end of the month we’re off to Japan for a week’s holding camp before heading to PyeongChang for Opening Ceremony on February 9.
“We’re all really looking forward to it and we’re feeling good and ready to go.”
On the cusp of her third Games, skip Eve Muirhead said: “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.”
And men’s skip Kyle added: “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.”
The games will run from February 9-25 and the curling competition starts on February 14.