Winter Olympics 2022: 'It is going to take a long time to sink in' - Eve Muirhead revels in 'incredible' curling triumph

ByHarry Latham Coyle

Updated 20/02/2022 at 09:06 GMT

Repeating the feat of Rhona Martin's rink in Salt Lake City in 2002, Eve Muirhead and her team played a close-to-faultless nine ends in Beijing to break Team GB's Winter Olympics 2022 gold medal duck. "It's been a long time coming," the British skip told Eurosport. "As a team, we've worked so hard to get here. I'm just so proud of them all."

Eve Muirhead could barely hide her disbelief after Great Britain produced a commanding showing to win Winter Olympic curling gold.

Breaking Team GB's Beijing 2022 gold medal duck, the skip and her rink played virtually flawlessly at the Ice Cube, not even requiring the final end.

Japan settled for silver at 10-3 down after the ninth end, with 2014 bronze medallist Muirhead leading from the front with an outstanding performance both with and without the hammer to control a one-sided victory.

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She follows Rhona Martin as an Olympic champion female British curling skip, and could barely hide her disbelief

"It is going to take a long time to sink in I think - I'm not sure it has just yet," Muirhead beamed to Eurosport moments after shaking hands.

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What a performance today - we saved our best game until last.

"It's been a long time coming. As a team, we've worked so hard to get here. I'm just so proud of them all."

"It feels bizarre to be honest. To think it was 20 years ago that Rhona Martin made history by winning that gold medal.

"We've followed in her footsteps and done it 20 years later. It is incredible, it really is."

Britain had appeared to be careering for an early exit after several stumbles during the round robin stage, but were granted a reprieve when the final set of matches all fell favourably.

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Muirhead held her nerve to squeeze past Sweden after an extra end to guarantee Great Britain a medal, setting up a meeting with the Japanese quartet, who had stunned a strong Swiss team.

Having watched their male counterparts miss out on gold one day prior, it was a performance of real class from Great Britain, led by Muirhead but backed up by a pristine team performance.

Third Vicky Wright made just a single error, in that penultimate end, in an otherwise magisterial performance, clearing the way repeatedly to allow Muirhead's steady hand to score consistently.

Wright told Eurosport: "We were really confident going into that game.

"We prepared the exact same way and we went out there and gave it our best go. And here we are!"

Britain are likely to close Beijing 2022 with two medals, both won in curling.

‘GB have surely won the Olympic title’ – Watch moment Muirhead delivers key blow in final

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The Olympic Games will return with Paris 2024, live on Eurosport and discovery+.

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