IT seems to have crept upon us, but the Winter Olympics will be live in just around 10 days, with what I have no reason to doubt will be a spectacular opening ceremony courtesy of its Chinese hosts.
Once again, following the action live will prove difficult due to the time difference but I have no doubt that the diehards will be there cheering on Team GB.
Big hopes have been pinned on curling’s Team Muirhead – with Eve a veteran at the games, having made her debut in Vancouver in 2010 – and the sport itself has been tipped as having medal potential in all three events.
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My thoughts wandered back to 2002 when Rhona Martin led Great Britain to Olympic curling gold in Salt Lake City, the first British gold at a Winter Games in 18 years. She had the nation on the edge of its seat, including my dad, who was glued to the TV.
Playing in front of 25,000 spectators at the Olympic Plaza, as well as a television audience of 5.6 million people, the tension for that last shot as she had to displace a Swiss stone from the centre of the “house” required a full team effort but together they ensured that it made the target.
On her return home Rhona was quoted as saying: “Then we got back to Scotland. We didn’t even get through the airport. There were so many people waiting for us and wanting interviews. We were like, ‘oh my goodness, Jackie Bird wants to speak to us’.
“That whole 24-hour period was crazy. We weren’t used to the media attention but it was great for the sport.”
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Fingers crossed we have another curling gold this year, in a difficult and different set of circumstances with Covid-19 still playing a negative role in most sports, whether it be on travelling to an event or competing once there.
Curling has a long history and a lot of it is credited to Scotland where the first recognised curling clubs were formed and then spread or exported to various countries which had a large proportion of Scots within their community.
However it wasn’t until 1966 that a draft constitution for the International Curling Federation was considered by seven countries and adopted and it has pretty much been a success story ever since then.
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