Eve Muirhead tasked with saving Team GB's Olympics in curling showdown - Best of Beijing

ByBen Snowball

Updated 29/03/2022 at 12:52 GMT

Team GB head into the final day at Beijing 2022 without a gold medal. Only Eve Muirhead, Jen Dodds, Hailey Duff and Vicky Wright can change that. They face Japan in the women’s curling final bright and early on Sunday morning – from 1:05 GMT – while Brad Hall goes for the podium in the men’s four-man bobsleigh. Follow it live on Eurosport and discovery+

BEST MOMENTS OF DAY 15

'Something in the stars'

The fate of a nation rests on one woman. OK, that’s overhyping it slightly… Four women.

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Eve Muirhead, and her loyal companions Jen Dodds, Hailey Duff and Vicky Wright, are the chosen four to rescue Team GB’s Winter Olympics and nab gold from the Beijing vault.

After a life dedicated to a thin strip of ice painted with targets, this is Muirhead’s defining moment. A broom tantrum at Vancouver 2010, bronze at Sochi 2014 and capitulation at PyeongChang 2018 have carved the path to her biggest day.

Twenty years ago in Salt Lake City, a nation held its breath as Rhona Martin caressed the ‘stone of destiny’ down the ice, illegible bellows soundtracking the tense shuffle, before it nudged a Swiss stone away for gold. Britain has not triumphed on ice since.

There are parallels between Martin’s run to the final and Muirhead. Martin needed two tie-breaker matches just to make the semi-finals, Muirhead snuck out of the round-robin phase via an unusual draw shot challenge. Martin came through the semi-final with the final stone, Muirhead needed an extra end. Does that bode well for the final?

Not for our hearts, sure, but possibly our hopes of gold. After Bruce Mouat's rink failed to get over the line, we're left staring at the possibility of a hopeless haul of two silvers. A gold and a silver – and maybe even if a bronze if Brad Hall pulls it out the bag in the four-man bobsleigh – might just pass as a success. Or at least enough to avoid our German office sending us another humiliating meme.

"They are there, there is something in the stars, you can feel it," said Greg Rutherford in The Cube. "After all of the doom and gloom, Eve is in there."

Bring it home!

'They had it all on their shoulders' - Reaction to GB's men taking curling silver

Stop it, Germany

We’re looking forward to the Great Sliding Scandal being exposed in 2030, when we find out Germany’s skeleton, luge and bobsleigh sleds were rocket fuelled. There’s no other explanation or we just can’t bring ourselves to say well done, it’s one of the two.

Seriously though, Germany’s dominance has been ridiculous. Both skeleton golds, all four luge titles and topping the podium in two of the three bobsleigh events.

Laura Nolte and Deborah Levi became the latest to chalk up victory in black, red and gold as they ripped to victory in the two-woman bob – restoring the former’s reputation after the humiliation of finishing fourth (seriously, it’s disgusting) in the monobob.

The four-man bobsleigh concludes on Sunday where – yep, you guessed it – Germany are first and second, a long way clear of provisional bronze. Share the love, eh?

Watch Germany's final run as Nolte and Levi seal sensational gold

Finally!

The figure skating pairs was held until the penultimate day of the Olympics so Sui Wenjing and Han Cong could finish as the poster stars of the Games.

Unfortunately the organisers didn’t factor in an incredible doping scandal into their plans, so Sui and Han’s moment in the limelight wasn’t quite as hyped as they would have wanted. Still, it wasn’t bad.

Four years ago they finished 0.43 points off gold – this time it was the Chinese who won by the slimmest of margins as their score of 239.88 saw off Russia’s Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov by just 0.63 points.

Cue the most emotional of celebrations.

Watch incredible celebrations as China's Sui and Han get gold medal result

THREE TO WATCH ON SUNDAY – ACTUALLY MAKE THAT SIX…

We’re cheating as it’s the final day of competition. EVERY event is worth watching so go to bed immediately, set your alarms for 00:59 GMT and get ready for an action-packed night. Here’s what’s on the menu:

• Alpine Skiing – Mixed team parallel relay (from 1:00 GMT)

Who doesn’t love a mixed event? Skiers face off on identical courses, racing at the same time side by side. Four skiers from each nation – two men and two women – have a series of head-to-head battles. The team that wins 4-0 or 3-1 advances to the next round. In the event of a 2-2 tie, the team with the best aggregate time wins.

Need another reason to watch? Mikaela Shiffrin is on the entry list – this is her final shot of a medal in Beijing.

• Curling – Women’s final: Great Britain v Japan (1:05 GMT)

Come on Eve Muirhead! Team GB’s last realistic shot of a gold medal in Beijing rests in the hands of our most famous curler. After surviving a rollercoaster of a semi-final and a draw shot challenge in the round-robin phase, could Muirhead do it the easy way in the final with Japan? Probably not, which is even more of a reason to burn the midnight oil and stick around for this one.

• Bobsleigh – Four-man heats three and four (from 1:30 GMT)

Come on Brad Hall! After capsizing in the two-man bob, Hall has returned with a vengeance in the four-man alongside Taylor Lawrence, Nick Gleeson and Greg Cackett. The British quartet sit sixth at the halfway point – a long way off gold, but bronze in their sights at +0.31 seconds.

• Figure skating – Gala exhibition (from 4:00 GMT)

Arguably the highlight of the Winter Olympics, yet no medals are awarded. The Gala exhibition is the final chance for skaters to impress before departing the Games, without the pressure of being marked down for under-rotating in a quad lutz. More emphasis is placed on creativity so expect the likes of Yuzuru Hanyu – yep, he’s competing! – to dazzle.

• Ice hockey – Men’s gold medal match (4:10 GMT)

It’s the big one. OK, it’s not really, given the lack of NHL players meant the anticipated USA v Canada showdown never materialised But this is still a good match-up between defending champions Russia and Finland. The Finns have never won Olympic gold on the ice despite finishing on the podium 10 times across the men’s and women’s competitions. Could it be 11th time lucky?

• Closing Ceremony (from 12:00 GMT)

Where have the last two and a bit weeks gone? We don’t know, but we do know is that the Beijing Olympics will conclude with a presumably spectacular ceremony.

BRIT WATCH

Eve and Brad, you know what to do.

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