Eve Muirhead’s women’s curlers crushed Japan on Sunday to secure Great Britain’s first gold medals of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
In her fourth Winter Games, 31-year-old Muirhead and her team of Vicky Wright, Jennifer Dodds and Hailey Duff, plus alternate Mili Smith, dominated their final against Japan, ruthlessly sealing a 10-3 win – the joint-biggest winning margin in a final since the sport was reintroduced in 1998.
Muirhead’s defining moment came not amid the tension of an extra end, but with the final stone of the seventh end, when a superbly-executed raised take-out gave the Britons four for an 8-2 lead and effectively the victory.
It completed a remarkable journey for Muirhead, who was the youngest skip to win a curling world title in 2013 but had only a bronze medal from 2014 – and bronze medal heartbreak against the same Japanese team four years ago – to show for three Olympic quests to date.
Bobsleigh success for Team GB
Germany was tantalisingly close to a historic second medal sweep in the bobsleigh, but for Canadian Justin Kripps and his team, 0.79 seconds off Friedrich’s pace.
After three strong runs their fourth was relatively weak, with their advantage over Christoph Hafer’s crew dwindling with each corner they turned down the serpentine track.
In the end, the Canadians were just 0.06 seconds faster, enough to deny another German wipeout.
"One of the things when you’re up against the Germans, when you can beat one of them, when you can get a medal despite that it means so much, because it’s so hard to do," Kripps said.
"It feels incredible to be able to get on the podium amidst such a dominant performance from them."
Kripps did however have doubts whether German dominance was good for the sport.
"The athletes are so good. Great drivers, great pushers, and so you can’t take anything away from those guys, they deserve to be Olympic medallists and they are."
"With the equipment, though, it’s a bit difficult because you have to spend so much money on these sleds, and most countries don’t or can’t. The advantage it gives you is really big."
Friedrich joked before the Olympics that he was struggling to find space at home for his bobsleigh treasure trove - the squeeze will be worse after again winning the two- and four-man events as he did in Pyeongchang four years ago.
It was a great morning for Britain, with Brad Hall’s team delivering the country’s best four-man performance since 1998 with their sixth place finish.
Winter Olympics medal table
Country |
Gold |
Silver |
Bronze |
Total |
|
1 |
Norway |
16 |
8 |
13 |
37 |
2 |
Germany |
12 |
10 |
5 |
27 |
3 |
China |
9 |
4 |
2 |
15 |
4 |
United States |
8 |
10 |
7 |
25 |
5 |
Sweden |
8 |
5 |
5 |
18 |
6 |
Netherlands |
8 |
5 |
4 |
17 |
7 |
Austria |
7 |
7 |
4 |
18 |
8 |
Switzerland |
7 |
2 |
5 |
14 |
9 |
ROC |
6 |
12 |
14 |
32 |
10 |
France |
5 |
7 |
2 |
14 |
19 |
Great Britain |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
Table correct as of 08:00 am on Sunday February 20
