Winter Olympics 2022 - ‘One of the best skips of all time’ - Bruce Mouat hails ‘unreal’ Eve Muirhead after winning gold
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Updated 20/02/2022 at 09:08 GMT
Eve Muirhead has been described by Britain’s silver medal winning men’s curling skip Bruce Mouat as being “of the greatest of all time” after she guided Team GB to gold in the women’s competition. Mouat says the four-time Olympian is “one of the best ambassadors for our sport, ever” who has “unreal talent”.
‘GB have surely won the Olympic title’ – Watch moment Muirhead delivers key blow in final
Eve Muirhead can be considered as one of curling’s greatest ever skips after guiding Team GB to women’s curling gold at the Winter Olympics, according to her counterpart Bruce Mouat.
At her fourth Olympics, the 31-year-old made up for previous heartbreak at the Games by securing her rink a dominant win over Japan in the Beijing final.
Mouat was watching on in the Ice Cube after an emotional few days, having won silver in the men’s competition and been told he had been selected as Great Britain’s flagbearer for the closing ceremony.
“I was just overcome with emotion, the last 48 hours have been insane,” Mouat told Eurosport.
“Just being able to see how hard they had all worked and to know how much they wanted it and actually witness it in real life…It felt amazing to finally see Eve achieve that dream of hers.
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“I think Eve has been one of the best ambassadors for our sport, ever - she has an unreal talent. She has proven herself time and time again.
“This is just going to be the best moment of her career. I'm so happy for her, it's really kind of emotional for me to even talk about it.
“I know how hard she works and with the team kind of swapping and changing so much over the last kind of eight months, it shows what sort of a leader she is.
This is going to make her one of the best skips of all time.
“For me personally, it was just great to see [mixed doubles partner] Jen [Dodds] on that podium and standing up, being so proud of herself and all the hard work that she's put in, because she is honestly one of the hardest working people I know.”
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‘Perfect again!’ – Watch moment Muirhead’s rink seal Team GB’s first gold of Beijing Games
Mouat and Muirhead have been the catalysts for curling fever in the UK and many of the team have completed a remarkable journey from ordinary life, to Olympic medallists. Vicky Wright is a nurse who worked on the front line during the worst of Covid, while Hailey Duff was a buyer for a garden furniture company. Mouat hopes stories like that will inspire many more to take up the sport.
“Knowing what we all go through on a daily basis at training, it really feels amazing that we've had this opportunity to showcase our sport, and both teams leaving with medals,” he said.
“It just feels amazing that we've achieved this and we really do hope that the performances that we've put in has inspired people to take up curling. It is obviously going to be such an achievement for us if the participation numbers have increased at all.”
Interest and participation in curling exploded after Rhona Martin (now Howie) won Britain gold at Salt Lake City 2002, but Mouat is hoping success in Beijing will be a catalyst for more investment across the UK.
“The first thing that we need to tackle is the facilities, we obviously need to get more across the entire nation rather than just in Scotland.
“So, some more in England and in Wales to be able to have opportunities for people to go and try it out on an actual ice rink, rather than just the dry ones that you could sometimes see. It would be a great opportunity for our sport to grow if we had more facilities.”
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