Squad created out of thin air and desperation
Great Britain’s curling women captured their first Olympic gold medal since Salt Lake City 2002 by dismantling Japan at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing.
Scotland’s Eve Muirhead did the honours for the Brits, jumping out to a 2-0 lead over Japan’s Satsuki Fujisawa foursome and stretching their advantage to 4-1 at the midway point.
In the sixth end, Japan missed a critical tap for two and scored only one. In the seventh end, with third Chinami Yoshida struggling, disaster struck as Fujisawa missed an easy takeout and set up a GBR runback for four.
Muirhead, the defending European champion, made the shot for an insurmountable 8-3 lead.
The final score was 10-3.
“It’s going to take a long time to sink in, I think, because I’m not sure it has yet,” said Muirhead, who captured Olympic bronze at Sochi 2014.
The skip had missed a shot against Fujisawa for a second bronze four years ago in PyeongChang.
“What a performance out there today. We saved our best game ’till last. It’s been a long time coming and I think for us as a team we’ve worked so hard to get here. I’m just so proud of them all.”
Rhona Howie (Martin), who won Great Britain’s surprise gold in 2002, was in the arena as a television analyst.
“It feels bizarre, to be honest,” said Muirhead. “To think it was 20 years ago when Rhona Martin made history in Great Britain by winning that gold medal. We’ve followed in her footsteps and done it 20 years later. It’s incredible, it really is.”
Muirhead leads a new team that was created—just months ago—out of thin air and desperation. It’s a remarkable story.
Last April, Muirhead finished eighth at the world championship in Calgary, which failed to qualify Great Britain for a berth in the Olympic women’s field. Prior to the event, she had acknowledged some anxiety.
The situation looked grim. The Scots would have to qualify Great Britain for Beijing by winning one of the three berths available at the Olympic Qualifying Event (OQE) that was a scant eight months away.
British Curling—with a high-performance program run by David Murdoch, who won Olympic silver for Great Britain at Sochi 2014—consulted the athletes and instituted a squad system, where nine high-performance competitors competed in different team rotations over the following six months.
The end result saw Muirhead chosen to skip a selected squad of relative rookies; Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds and Hailey Duff. The foursome had logged solid tournament results leading up to November’s European Championships, where they accelerated their rapid development by winning gold.
Then came the OQE in Leeuwarden, Netherlands. Despite a slow start, the squad rallied and earned the first of three available berths in Beijing (Japan took the second).
Their 5-4 record in the Beijing round robin appeared a bit rocky—although Muirhead insists the team played well—and it was superior Draw Shot Challenge marks that saw them promoted into the semifinals along with Japan, at the expense of Canada.
Then came the playoffs, where Muirhead embraced a remarkably aggressive style of play. Her team put a total of 22 points on the scoreboard in those two matches.
Dodds had lost the bronze medal game in mixed doubles with teammate Bruce Mouat, who won men’s team silver the previous day.
“I don’t think it’s going to sink in for a while,” Dodds said. “I think I’m just speechless. All I can say is I’m so proud of these girls, the way they played that final and through the whole week was incredible.
“Hopefully that was slightly less stressful than the semifinal for all our families.”
As of publication of this story, the medals won by the Muirhead and Mouat curling teams were the only ones earned for Great Britain at Beijing 2022.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Olympic silver medal is sure to cause an explosion of excitement. Four years ago, the bronze medal vaulted the team members—who were already popular—into a world of celebrity stardom.
“It was not our best performance,” said second Yumi Suzuki. “Despite silver, it is indeed a meaningful medal for Japan.”