EVE MUIRHEAD achieved her lifetime ambition as she led the Team GB women's curling team to a first Olympic gold at the Games in 20 years.
Muirhead, in her fourth Olympic appearance, matched the success of Rhona Howie in 2002 with a comprehensive victory in the Final against Japan on Sunday.
Coincidentally, there were similarities between the two campaigns. In 2002, Howie - then with the surname Martin - needed other results to go in her favour to lead her team to the knockout stages.
This time, the Muirhead rink also held a 5-4 record and required both Sweden and Switzerland to win to progress via the Draw Shot Challenge.
If that was not enough to shred the nerves of the British curling community, then the epic semi final against the Swedes certainly was.
It all started horribly as Sweden took four from the first end - but a thankfully rapid response of three allowed the Britain to play their way into the contest.
Still 8-7 down in the ninth but with the hammer, Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds, and Hailey Duff then produced a brilliant series of shots.
The penultimate end culminated in a fantastic tap shot from British skip Muirhead to register an amazing four - and an out-of-the-blue three-score lead.
But Sweden refused to go quietly - and their skip Anna Hasselborg executed a perfect take out to score three and make it 11-11.
Deep breaths were required for the extra end - but the British curlers, with the hammer, held their nerve well - and, in a ridiculously high-scoring match, kept the house clear for Muirhead to draw to the button for a 12-11 triumph.
To some relief, the Final was a far more straightforward affair as Britain immediately took charge with an early two then stole a point in the fifth end to lead 4-1 at the halfway stage.
Japan were forced to settle for one point only in the sixth end before Muirhead broke the back of the match with a brilliant four in the seventh.
Olympic curling finals must contain at least eight ends so Japan were obliged to continue - but, after again being forced to take just one from the eighth, they briefly considered a concession.
At 8-3 with a potential two ends left, there was seemingly just enough life left in the contest.
However, another well-constructed end in the ninth left Team GB well in the clear - and the emotional celebrations could begin.
Meanwhile, the men's curling team also brought home a medal from the Ice Cube venue, taking silver after a tough 5-4 defeat to Sweden in a Final which required an extra end.
That was a real shame for Bruce Mouat's rink who had dominated the competition up until then. Britain lost just once in the round robin stage to the United States - and overcame the Americans in the semi final anyway.
Both of Britain's knockout matches in the men's competition were extremely tactical encounters with opportunities for scoring quickly shut off.
In the semi final, the United States - trailing 5-4 - blanked the sixth, seventh and eighth ends to retain the hammer throughout the second half of the match.
The Americans were also trying to blank the ninth to the carry the hammer into the final end but allowed to Britain to steal one before further errors from the United States in the 10th decided the contest for certain.
If anything, the Final was even tighter - with only one single instance of a team taking two shots throughout the whole match when Sweden scored in the second end.
Sweden blanked the fifth and sixth ends, and tried to continue the run beyond that. However, Britain stole a point to level the scores in the seventh end then forced Sweden to take only one from the eighth.
With no clear way to scoring two, Britain blanked the ninth end - but had no choice other than to take only one point from the 10th end to level the score 4-4.
Sweden had the hammer for the extra end - and, having again reduced the scoring opportunities through their lethal take-outs, used it to full advantage to draw into the button for victory.
It was truly an agonising defeat for Britain's men - but they did at least take a well-deserved place on the podium.
Beyond curling, though, there were no other medals for Team GB as the 2022 cohort fell short of the pre-Games target set by UK Sport of between three and seven medals.
Certainly, it feels like a step backwards after the previous two Winter Olympics in Sochi (2014) and Pyeonchang (2018) delivered five medals on both occasions.
In response, UK Sport chief Sally Munday said: "I think you probably liken us to a wounded lion.
"We'll lick our wounds, we'll work out what needs to be different and we will come back fighting and roaring for Milan-Cortina (in 2026)."
Fighting talk - and, in fairness to UK Sport and the Olympians themselves, this has not been an easy cycle for a non-alpine country like the United Kingdom.
Undoubtedly, the impact of COVID-19 has been a big factor. Around 60% of Britain’s 50-strong squad spend large parts of their year abroad so less time to train on snow and ice due to travel restrictions has inevitably hurt Team GB medal prospects.
By contrast, curling is such a part of Scottish heritage that even the granite stones used in competition all come from Aisla Craig, an uninhabited island off the coast of Ayrshire.
Rather more pertinently, Muirhead, Mouat and their teams were able to train at a bespoke venue in Stirling.
Nevertheless, Team GB bosses have got wounds to lick.
Skeleton had delivered at least one medal for Britain at every Winter Olympics since its reintroduction to the Games at Salt Lake City in 2002.
For sure, double Olympic champion Lizzy Yarnold has now retired - but Laura Deas, who was on the track in Beijing, won bronze in 2018 and is a far better athlete than her 19th-placed finish suggested. Instead, questions must be asked of the equipment used by Team GB.
After all, a nation famed for its prowess in the research and development surely can come up with something better than the pile of junk which the four British sliders had to endure at these Games.
Furthermore, the appropriate allocation of funds to the right areas was highlighted by the impressive showing by the self-funded Team GB quartet in the four-man bobsleigh.
Pilot Brad Hall, Nick Gleeson, Greg Cackett and Taylor Lawrence finished in an extremely creditable sixth place having been required to resort to a crowdfunding campaign.
Gleeson said: "Everything we have gone through, everything we have had to do, everything we've had to sacrifice, top six is like a medal for us.
"I really hope UK Sport take a long, hard look at us. We've beaten a whole host of nations with a significantly bigger budget."
Outside of the Team GB sphere, the Olympic medal table was dominated - once again - by Norway, already the most successful Winter Olympics nation of all.
The Norwegians topped the standings for the second time in a row - and the ninth time in history - with 16 gold medals, eight silver, and 13 bronze.
However, the biggest story of the Games involved Russia which again officially represented their Olympic Committee - rather than their flag - due to a ruling in December 2020 by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
That followed the exposure of a state-sanctioned doping programme - but, disgracefully although equally unsurprisingly, that measure does not seem to have made the slightest bit of difference.
On day seven of these Games, a doping scandal erupted yet again in the Russian camp when 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva was revealed to have tested positive in a drugs test which had taken place six weeks prior to the start of the Games.
Traces of trimetazidine, a cardiovascular agent banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), had been found in the sample provided by Valieva.
The teenager blamed a mix-up with medication taken by her grandfather - but, with the investigation still ongoing, CAS did not suspend Valieva.
It was a bizarre decision which was out of line with the usual protocol - and, sadly, her ongoing competitive responsibilities had a devastating effect on a vulnerable youngster.
Skating in the ladies' singles, Valieva fell twice during her routine and dropped out of the medals having previously been top of the standings in the short programme.
Valieva left the ice in tears - but, incredibly, there was little sympathy forthcoming from her coach Eteri Tutberidze who was immediately critical of her performance.
Depressingly, for many viewers around the world, that became the iconic image of these Games.
Now, this 24th edition of the Winter Olympics was hardly without controversy even before the torch was lit at the Opening Ceremony.
At best, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was ambivalent to the high-profile reports of human rights abuses in China - and, quite frankly, everything about these Games from the hosts felt cold in the completely wrong way for a Winter Olympics.
Already, the visit to Milan-Cortina in 2026 sounds like it is going to be more fun.
Of course, Great Britain has sent a team to every Olympic Games - both the summer and winter versions - and so, it was only right that, despite understandable reservations and a high-profile diplomatic boycott, Team GB still sent a squad to Beijing.
Muirhead, for one, is certainly pleased with the decision - and no one encapsulates the Olympic spirit better than the 31-year-old from the Fair City of Perth.
A gold medal, following an Olympic career spanning more than a decade, is finally hers at last.
TEAM GB SQUAD
- Alpine skiing Billy Major, Dave Ryding, Alexandra Tilley, Charlie Guest
- Bobsleigh Brad Hall, Nick Gleeson, Greg Cackett, Taylor Lawrence, Mica McNeill, Montell Douglas
- Cross-country skiing Andrew Musgrave, Andrew Young, James Clugnet
- Curling
[Men] Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie, Hammy McMillan Jr., Ross Whyte
[Women] Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds, Hailey Duff, Mili Smith - Figure skating Natasha McKay, Lilah Fear, Lewis Gibson
- Freestyle skiing Lloyd Wallace, James Woods, Gus Kenworthy, Isabel Atkin, Kirsty Muir, Katie Summerhayes, Zoe Atkin, Will Feneley, Leonie Gerken-Schofield, Makayla Gerken-Schofield, Oliver Davies
- Luge Rupert Staudinger
- Short-track speed skating Farrell Treacy, Niall Treacy, Kathryn Thomson
- Skeleton Matt Weston, Marcus Wyatt, Brogan Crowley, Laura Deas
- Snowboarding Katie Ormerod, Huw Nightingale, Charlotte Bankes
- Speed skating Cornelius Kersten, Ellia Smedling
CURLING Women's competition
| Skip | W | L | DSC | Team GB results | |
| (Q) Switzerland (SUI) | Silvana Tirinzoni | 8 | 1 | 19.14 | L5-6 |
| (Q) Sweden (SWE) | Anna Hasselborg | 7 | 2 | 25.02 | W8-2 | W12-11 (SF) |
| (Q) Great Britain (GBR) | Eve Muirhead | 5 | 4 | 35.27 | - |
| (Q) Japan (JPN) | Satsuki Fujisawa | 5 | 4 | 36.00 | W10-4 | W10-3 (F) |
| Canada (CAN) | Jennifer Jones | 5 | 4 | 45.44 | L3-7 |
| United States (USA) | Tabitha Peterson | 4 | 5 | 33.87 | W10-5 |
| China (CHN) | Han Yu | 4 | 5 | 30.06 | L4-8 |
| South Korea (KOR) | Kim Eun-jung | 4 | 5 | 27.79 | L7-9 |
| Denmark (DEN) | Madeleine Dupont | 2 | 7 | 23.36 | W7-2 |
| Russia (ROC) | Alina Kovaleva | 1 | 8 | 29.34 | W9-4 |
CURLING Men's competition
| Skip | W | L | DSC | Team GB results | |
| (Q) Great Britain (GBR) | Bruce Mouat | 8 | 1 | 18.81 | - |
| (Q) Sweden (SWE) | Niklas Edin | 7 | 2 | 14.02 | W7-6 | L4-5 (F) |
| (Q) Canada (CAN) | Brad Gushue | 5 | 4 | 26.49 | W5-2 |
| (Q) United States (USA) | John Shuster | 5 | 4 | 32.29 | L7-9 | W8-4 (SF) |
| China (CHN) | Ma Xiuyue | 4 | 5 | 23.55 | W7-6 |
| Norway (NOR) | Steffen Waldstad | 4 | 5 | 20.96 | W8-3 |
| Switzerland (SUI) | Peter De Cruz | 4 | 5 | 15.74 | W6-5 |
| Russia (ROC) | Sergey Glukhov | 4 | 5 | 33.72 | W8-6 |
| Italy (ITA) | Joel Retornaz | 3 | 6 | 30.76 | W7-5 |
| Denmark (DEN) | Mikkel Krause | 1 | 8 | 32.84 | W8-2 |
MEDAL TABLE Beijing 2022 Olympics
| Pos | G | S | B | TOTAL | |
| 1 | NORWAY (NOR) | 16 | 8 | 13 | 37 |
| 2 | GERMANY (GER) | 12 | 10 | 5 | 27 |
| 3 | CHINA (CHN) | 9 | 4 | 2 | 15 |
| 4 | UNITED STATES (USA) | 8 | 10 | 7 | 25 |
| 5 | SWEDEN (SWE) | 8 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| 6 | NETHERLANDS (NED) | 8 | 5 | 4 | 17 |
| 7 | AUSTRIA (AUT) | 7 | 7 | 4 | 18 |
| 8 | SWITZERLAND (SUI) | 7 | 2 | 5 | 14 |
| 9 | RUSSIAN OLYMPIC TEAM (ROC) | 6 | 12 | 14 | 32 |
| 10 | FRANCE (FRA) | 5 | 7 | 2 | 14 |
| 11 | CANADA (CAN) | 4 | 8 | 14 | 26 |
| 12 | JAPAN (JPN) | 3 | 6 | 9 | 18 |
| 13 | ITALY (ITA) | 2 | 7 | 8 | 17 |
| 14 | SOUTH KOREA (KOR) | 2 | 5 | 2 | 9 |
| 15 | SLOVENIA (SLO) | 2 | 3 | 2 | 7 |
| 16 | FINLAND (FIN) | 2 | 2 | 4 | 8 |
| 17 | NEW ZEALAND (NZL) | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| 18 | AUSTRALIA (AUS) | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
| 19 | GREAT BRITAIN (GBR) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 20 | HUNGARY (HUN) | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| 21 | BELGIUM (BEL) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 21 | CZECH REPUBLIC (CZE) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 21 | SLOVAKIA (SVK) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 24 | BELARUS (BLR) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 25 | SPAIN (ESP) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | UKRAINE (UKR) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | ESTONIA (EST) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 27 | LATVIA (LAT) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 29 | POLAND (POL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
No comments:
Post a Comment