Winter Olympics: Eve Muirhead and the curling stars of Team GB’s gold medal winners

A long-awaited gold for Muirhead, who has built her team for success after making her own Games debut back in 2010

(Getty Images)

Eleven games, five women, one incredible Olympic victory.

Olympic curling gold goes to an NHS nurse, a former office assistant, a garden furniture buyer and one of the greatest in the sport’s history.

But what are the stories behind the fantastic four who brought home Great Britain’s first curling gold in 20 years?

Eve Muirhead: skip

As a scratch golfer, a competitive bagpiper and the face of British curling for the last decade, Muirhead’s Caledonian credentials are beyond question.

The 31-year-old went to the same school as Ewan McGregor but her first crush wasn’t Scottish, it was Shane from Westlife.

An Olympic champion at the fourth attempt, Muirhead’s curling journey has captivated the nation since she won bronze at Sochi 2014 - the youngest skip to ever reach the podium.

Olympic gold is the crowning glory and comes after a challenging four-year cycle including hip surgery, a change of team personnel and lockdown spent alone.

Vicky Wright: vice-skip

Describing herself as an “above average wine drinker,” Wright will return to the NHS frontline as an Olympic champion.

When Covid hit, the full-time athlete returned to work as a surgical ward nurse at Forth Valley Hospital in Larbert, Scotland.

Her fiancée Greg Drummond won curling silver at Sochi 2014 and she has relished one-upping him with gold. Drummond coached Dodds and Bruce Mouat in the mixed doubles competition in Beijing.

Wright saved the best game of her Olympic debut for the final, where her shot accuracy was an incredible 94%.

Jennifer Dodds: second

Dodds has epitomised the fighting spirit of Muirhead’s team, coming back from mixed doubles heartbreak to win Olympic gold.

The 30-year-old from Edinburgh worked as an office assistant for a soil management company before becoming a full-time curler.

Dodds is the longest-serving member of Team Muirhead having first combined with the skip in 2018, with Wright coming on board in 2019 and Duff in 2021.

She finished an agonising fourth in the mixed doubles with childhood friend Bruce Mouat but bounced back to play a crucial role in the victory.

Hailey Duff: lead

A year ago, Duff hadn’t played a single international event at senior level. Now she is an Olympic champion.

The 25-year-old works part-time as an assistant buyer for Garden Furniture Scotland.

Born in Auckland, New Zealand, the keen skier tried curling at a taster event in Forfar aged eight and fell in love with the sport.

Duff broke into Team Muirhead after they employed an internal tryout system having missed out on the top six and Olympic qualification at the 2021 World Championships.

Mili Smith: alternate

Smith didn’t take the ice at the Cube but receives an Olympic gold medal aged 23.

The team have repeatedly paid tribute to Smith’s support from behind the scenes, staying up into the small hours to help them ‘match stones’ and prepare for games.

Her father David was crowned curling world champion in 1991 and her older brothers Kyle and Cammy represented Team GB in the men’s tournament at PyeongChang 2018.

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