Golden girls inspire kids to try their hand
Pupils at a Crieff school continued to try their hand at winter sports during a recent visit to the Dewars Centre in Perth.
Inspired by the exploits of skip Eve Muirhead’s gold medal-winning rink, curing was on the menu for youngsters in Forms 3 and 4 at the Strath capital’s Ardvreck School in the Fair City.
The children’s visit came shortly after pupils enjoyed a skiing session at an indoor facility in Glasgow.
Meanwhile, Muirhead – a former pupil at Crieff ’s Morrison’s Academy and a Crieff Highland Gathering chieftain – teamed-up with fellow Olympic star Rhona Howie to mark International Women’s Day on Tuesday, March 8.
And they hope that the latest Team GB gold medal-winning performance will prove to be another powerful force for good in championing the benefits of women’s sport.
Blair Atholl skip Muirhead, alongside Jen Dodds, Vicky Wright, Hailey Duff and Mili Smith, memorably struck gold in Beijing last month.
Howie, meanwhile, enjoyed similar success back in 2002 at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
British Curling brought the two women who have skipped Team GB rinks to gold medal glory together at the National Curling Academy in Stirling to mark International Women’s Day.
Muirhead said: “When my team and Rhona’s team won gold, that is 10 female athletes who have really made a huge difference in sport in Great Britain and I think that sends out a huge and fantastic message.
“We need more women involved in sport and hopefully we are examples of the fact that we are capable of winning medals and capable of leaving legacies
and making history.”
Howie was in the commentary box this time around as Muirhead underwent a similar tumult of emotions to those she went through in 2002 after finishing with an identical round-robin record of five wins and four losses.
It was then relying on performances by other teams to help them into the playoffs before they produced upset wins in their respective semi-finals against pretournament favourites.
“Watching all the games, I always knew Eve and her team were going to be there or thereabouts and five wins and four losses is definitely the way to go at an Olympic Games,” she laughed.
“It shows that how you get there doesn’t matter, you just need to get that final win.
“Eve has obviously been at semi finals before, but to get to that first final
and win it convincingly was a massive achievement and I was always convinced they were going to do it.”
Muirhead believed it was significant that Howie, along with Jackie Lockhart, another of the women who inspired her in her youth when she skipped the Scotland team that won the World Championship just weeks after the 2002 Olympic triumph, were in the commentary booth on her greatest sporting day.
“More women commentating on sport, being around sport and being involved in sport and being part of the coaching set ups... it is just great to start seeing more female voices being involved in a lot of sports from football, golf, from rugby to curling,” she said.
“Having Rhona and Jackie in the commentary box out at the Olympics was great.”