The Queen has congratulated Team GB women’s curling team for their “outstanding performance” to win the UK’s first gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.
Hours after her coronavirus diagnosis, a message from the Queen was posted from the Royal Family Twitter account in which the monarch offered the winning curlers her “warmest congratulations” after their 10-3 final victory over Japan.
The team of Eve Muirhead, Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds and Hailey Duff, plus alternate Mili Smith, won Britain’s first gold medal on the final day of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.
In her message, the Queen wrote: “I send my warmest congratulations to the Team GB women’s curling team on your outstanding performance in winning the gold medal at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, following the silver medal achieved by the men’s curling team yesterday.
“I know that your local communities and people throughout the United Kingdom will join me in sending our good wishes to you, your coaches and the friends and family who have supported you in your great success.”
It comes after an announcement from Buckingham Palace that the 95-year-old monarch had tested positive for Covid-19 and is experiencing “mild cold-like symptoms”.
Buckingham Palace confirmed that she had been in direct contact with her eldest son and heir, the Prince of Wales, the week he had the infection.
Team GB’s women’s curling team beat Team Japan with a score of 10-3 in the final, which was watched by almost 700,000 people in the UK in the early hours of Sunday.
The win came after the men’s curling team won the silver medal on Saturday. Muirhead said the experience was “a rollercoaster journey for the whole team”, after they came close to not qualifying for the Games due to a Covid outbreak among the players and barely making it to the semi-finals.
The team was also congratulated by Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon, who tweeted: “Such an amazing achievement Team Muirhead #TeamGB - congratulations on Olympic [gold medal emoji].”
Additional reporting by PA
