After a long wait, Team GB claims women’s curling gold medal

BEIJING — On the final day of the Beijing 2022 Winter Games, the Great Britain women’s curling team won its first gold medal in 20 years and represented many of the Olympic touch points.

Eve Muirhead, the skip, found redemption. She losing twice in the semifinals at previous Olympic Games, to place third in 2014 and fourth in 2018 after misjudging the final stone.

“It took me a long time to get over that and even now I still think of that shot,” said Muirhead, a four-time Olympian from Stirling, Scotland. “It’s a horrible place to finish — fourth place is a place you don’t want to come — but I came back because I knew I was capable of getting a medal.”

Get a medal she did. Her team defeated the same Japanese squad that beat them in PyeongChang 2018 by a score of 10-3 to win Great Britain’s only gold medal in Beijing. The men’s curling team captured the silver for their only other medal. Given that curling originated in Scotland in the 16th century, it’s fitting that the medals came from this sport.

“Of course this is the moment I’ve dreamt of as a young child,” Muirhead said.

Jennifer Dodds, who plays second, was the marathon woman of the Beijing Games.

She curled 17 of the past 19 days and in her 22nd game she won the gold.

Dodds was curling two days before the Games officially began in mixed doubles — eventually finishing fourth — and was still on a sheet at the Ice Cube on the day of the closing ceremony.

“I was making sure I took that rest time for myself so I didn’t burn myself out,” she said.

Vicky Wright, who plays third, is a nurse who has treated COVID-19 patients and will go back to doing so when she returns to Great Britain. She also now has bragging rights in her household as her fiancé, Greg Drummond, is a former silver medalist for Great Britain.

Hailey Duff, who plays lead, is the relative newcomer who has been embraced by her teammates.

And Mili Smith is the alternate who was always ready to step in and shared in victory with a gold medal.

They received their medals Sunday in one of the few in-venue ceremonies. The Ice Cube is the former Water Cube from the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and a corner of the 14-year-old logo can be seen on the wall of the diving well behind the divider.

The British team had a rocky road to the gold. After losing three of their six round-robin games, they eked out a 12-11 win over Sweden in the semifinals.

Against the Japanese team led by Fujisawa Satsuki, Great Britain took a 2-0 lead after the first end and never trailed. Japan made it 2-1 in the next end, but Great Britain methodically pulled away until Muirhead had an excellent takeout in the seventh to score four points and take an overwhelming 8-2 lead.

Japan conceded after the ninth end.

Muirhead, who joins Rhona Martin from 2002 in leading a British team to the gold medal, said the Olympics capped a roller-coaster journey in which she placed eighth at the World Championships and had to fight to win the Olympic berth.

“There were days I wanted to throw my shoes in the cupboard and not take them out again,” Muirhead said. “But we all came back and we got this new team put together and won Europeans.”

The Great Britain squad has also dealt with a couple of positive COVID-19 tests within the team, but Muirhead declined to identify who was affected.

Muirhead said the semifinal win “showed how much fight we have. If you can bring your ‘A’ game in Olympic finals, that just shows how great and fantastic abilities we have. The girls have helped me become a better curler and they’ve also helped me become a better person. Without them I wouldn’t be here.”