Eve Muirhead OBE: A Career Defined by Gold

Where does Eve Muirhead come from?

Perthshire, and a family that has curled for three generations. Born in Perth on 22 April 1990 and raised on a farm at Blair Atholl, she started at Dunkeld Curling Club aged nine, tagging along with her father.

Gordon Muirhead curled for Great Britain at Albertville 1992, when the sport was still a demonstration event, and won a world title with Scotland in 1999. Her brothers Glen and Thomas both represented Great Britain at PyeongChang 2018. She is also a serious golfer and a competitive bagpiper, and turned down American golf scholarships to stay with the roaring game.

The junior record came fast. She won her first World Junior Curling Championship at sixteen in 2007, then took three more in 2008, 2009 and 2011. Four world junior titles before her twenty-first birthday.

Vancouver 2010 and the bronze in Sochi

She made her Olympic debut at Vancouver 2010, aged nineteen, as the youngest skip in the competition. Great Britain finished outside the medals.

The four years that followed built the reputation. She took the European title in Moscow in 2011 and the World Championship in Riga in 2013, learning the tactical patterns that would define how her teams played: patient early ends, pressure applied late, and a willingness to leave stones in play when the safe option was to clear the house.

At Sochi 2014 it paid out. She skipped Great Britain to bronze and became the youngest skip, male or female, ever to win an Olympic curling medal. She was twenty-three.

What happened at PyeongChang 2018?

She finished fourth, which in Olympic terms is the worst place to finish. Her rink reached the semi-finals, lost, then went into the bronze medal match against Japan and lost that too. The final stone was hers and it did not land.

She has been consistently open about how much that hurt, and about how directly it fed the next four years. The rebuild that followed was substantial: a new-look team, a changed approach, and a qualification route that very nearly did not work.

How Beijing 2022 was won

Through a last-chance qualifier that Great Britain almost did not survive. The team came through it, arrived in Beijing as nobody’s favourite, and improved with every session.

Muirhead carried the flag at the opening ceremony alongside skier Dave Ryding. Two weeks later she was in the final against Japan, the same opponent that had taken the bronze medal from her in 2018. Great Britain won 10-3, with a four-point seventh end that effectively closed the game. It was the country’s only gold of those Games and its first Olympic curling title since Rhona Martin’s rink in 2002.

She announced her retirement six months later, in August 2022, as a reigning Olympic, world and European champion. Very few athletes in any sport get to leave on that particular combination.

What did she do after retiring?

She moved straight into leadership. Her first role was Chef de Mission for Team GB at the Gangwon 2024 Winter Youth Olympic Games, which produced six medals and Team GB’s best winter youth result on record.

On the back of that, the British Olympic Association appointed her Chef de Mission for Milano Cortina 2026 in May 2024. She was the second woman to hold the role for Team GB and the first Scot to lead the team since PyeongChang 2018. The job is considerably less glamorous than it sounds: accreditation, village logistics, medical cover, media schedules and the welfare of every athlete and official in the delegation.

Milano Cortina turned into Great Britain’s most successful Winter Games. Five medals, three of them gold, from a nation that had never previously won more than five at a single Winter Olympics. The curling itself brought a men’s silver, with Bruce Mouat’s rink losing 9-6 to Canada in the final.

Why has she come out of retirement?

Because the mixed doubles event is unfinished business, and because the opportunity was there. In August 2026 she confirmed she is returning to competition to target the Alpes 2030 Winter Olympics in mixed doubles alongside Bobby Lammie, who won Olympic silver with Team Mouat at Milano Cortina.

Mixed doubles is a different game from the four-player discipline she built her career in. Two players instead of four, eight ends instead of ten, five stones each, pre-placed stones in the house before every end, and no room anywhere to hide a weak shot. It is faster, more aggressive, and there is nobody else on the sheet to sweep you out of trouble.

She has described the decision as frightening and has been straightforward about the risk of putting a finished career back on the line. Alpes 2030 would be her fifth Olympic Games as an athlete and her sixth in total.

What her record actually looks like

Four Olympic Games as a competitor, with gold at Beijing 2022 and bronze at Sochi 2014. One World Championship title, in 2013, alongside a silver and a bronze. Three European Championship golds from thirteen appearances. Four World Junior Championship titles. A World Mixed Doubles title in 2022. Six Grand Slam victories. She was appointed OBE for services to curling.

Set against that, one detail is worth holding onto. Her most quoted competitive moment is not any of the medals. It is the final stone she missed in PyeongChang, which is usually how you can tell someone was worth watching.

Frequently asked questions

Has Eve Muirhead retired from curling? She retired in August 2022, then reversed that decision in August 2026. She is now competing again with the aim of qualifying for the Alpes 2030 Winter Olympics in mixed doubles.

What medals has Eve Muirhead won? Olympic gold at Beijing 2022 and Olympic bronze at Sochi 2014, a World Championship title in 2013, three European Championship golds, a World Mixed Doubles title, and four World Junior Championship titles.

Who is Eve Muirhead’s mixed doubles partner? Bobby Lammie, as of her return to competition in August 2026. Lammie plays in Bruce Mouat’s rink and won Olympic silver in the men’s event at Milano Cortina 2026.

Is Eve Muirhead related to other curlers? Yes. Her father Gordon curled for Great Britain at Albertville 1992 and won a world title with Scotland in 1999. Her brothers Glen and Thomas both competed for Great Britain at PyeongChang 2018.

What was Eve Muirhead’s role at the 2026 Winter Olympics? She was Team GB’s Chef de Mission, responsible for leading the full British delegation. Great Britain returned from Milano Cortina with five medals, its best Winter Olympic result.

Do you need to be Scottish to curl? No, though it helps with the accent. Almost all of Britain’s Olympic curlers come through the Scottish performance pathway, largely because that is where the dedicated curling ice is. Ice-free curling exists partly to fix that geography.

Curling, minus the ice and the twenty years of practice

Everything above took Muirhead three decades and a farm two miles from an ice rink. Most people do not have either, which is where we come in.

Ice-free curling runs on a synthetic surface at room temperature, so there is no ice to slip on, no sweeping technique to learn and no cold hands. The stones behave the same way, the scoring is the same, and the part where somebody in your group lands an unlikely shot and the room reacts is exactly the same. It is not the game Muirhead plays and we would not pretend otherwise. It is the shortest route to finding out whether you would enjoy it.

Have a look at how a session works, or come and try it at Vinegar Yard near London Bridge or at Chelsea. You can check what is available whenever you are ready.