‘That fire’s been rebuilt in me’: Olympic champion Eve Muirhead set for sensational return to curling for Alpes 2030

Former Olympic champion Eve Muirhead has rarely been that far away from curling in the four years since she last threw a stone – and now the 36-year-old is set for a sensational return as she targets a fifth Winter Olympics at Alpes 2030.

Muirhead, one of Team GB’s most successful and decorated Winter Olympians, announced her return to the sport after four years away – which she spent partly as Team GB’s chef de mission for the Milan-Cortina Olympics – on Thursday.

She intends to compete in the mixed doubles event alongside two-time Olympic silver medallist Bobby Lammie, with whom she won the world title in 2022, her final year before retirement.

Muirhead competed for 15 years at elite level and retired as the reigning Olympic and European champion as well as world mixed doubles champion, having skipped GB to a bronze medal at Sochi 2014 as well as to their only gold of the Beijing 2022 Games.

She has no regrets over her decision to retire after Beijing, with a lifelong ambition realised and having “enjoyed every single moment” of that Olympics. “I know that was 100% the right decision, I needed a break from the sport,” she tells The Independent.

In the intervening time she has written a memoir, started a curling academy and worked for the British Olympic Association. She hadn’t necessarily missed her old life – but when the chance came up, suddenly it made all the sense in the world to take it.

British Curling approached her earlier this year, after the conclusion of her role as chef de mission, with the chance to compete in mixed doubles. An important aspect of the plan for Muirhead was the opportunity to train from her home in England, with her new base at the Flower Bowl in Preston, although she will still be travelling regularly to the National Curling Academy in Stirling.

She says: “You realise that you do miss that. When this opportunity was given to me, at the start I was like, ‘yeah, yeah, very good’. And then I went and seriously thought about it, and I thought, I’m as competitive as ever, that fire’s been re-built within me, and I feel like I’ve got one more Olympic cycle in me.

“And the opportunity I’ve been given to be a decentralised athlete, and it’s also something that I feel is a story to inspire others to show that [you can come back after] a break or a sabbatical.” She hopes British Curling’s overtures to her and her decision to give the sport another four years will inspire more women and athletes in the same vein as Lindsey Vonn and Serena Williams making comebacks after time away to focus on other ventures or to start a family. “It shows that it’s possible,” she says.

And the drive is very much still there. She says with obvious passion: “I’m genuinely really, really excited. You never really know until you go back, if that makes sense. I’ve been back on ice for a couple of weeks, up in Stirling the last couple of days, and kind of halfway through the session, I just thought to myself, you know what, I really, really miss this. Everyone who knows me knows that I love a challenge. I never do anything half halfhearted, so I just feel there is a massive opportunity there.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous about going back. But it didn’t take long at all to kind of get back in the groove, and it felt like I hadn’t really been away.”

For Muirhead the decision to compete in mixed doubles, which she has “unfinished business” with, made perfect sense. She says: “In the team game I feel like, I achieved what I set out to achieve at the start of my career. I wanted to become an Olympic champion, I wanted to become world champion, and that happened.” An Olympic medal in the mixed event, however, is missing from her trophy cabinet, while she missed out on a spot representing GB in Beijing, with her and Lammie losing out to Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds.

“Having not having not been on the plane to Beijing for mixed doubles of course was hard,” she recalls. “Me and Bobby on the back of that, we won the nationals, we came back and we won the world champs. So I feel like I’m still missing that small part, I guess, unfinished business within the mixed doubles. For Bobby, he missed a spot in Beijing along with myself, and of course got the silver in the men’s and then just came away in Milan with the silver medal, so I’m sure he’s got that kind of fire burning as well.”

While Muirhead has experienced every high that comes with sport she has also been open about the dark places she has found herself in, and the severe depression that she battled in the months leading up to Beijing.

That long-awaited Olympic triumph was preceded by heartbreak in Pyeongchang 2018, when her rink lost the bronze medal match to Japan, while she also required hip surgery and dealt with the bruising experience of her team initially failing to qualify for the Beijing Games. She has previously expressed a worry that going back to the sport, before Milan-Cortina, might trigger similar issues with her mental health.

Now she says: “In all honesty, it was one of the reasons I retired, because I was probably scared that I would go through that again. But taking that break from elite sport, taking the kind of perspective away, if you know what I mean, has taught me a lot. Number one, I want to make sure that I’m enjoying it, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. And of course, enjoyment then brings success, doesn’t it?

“I think me speaking up about my mental health troubles kind of was the voice for some change and I guess more respect, in a way. Sometimes I think people don’t speak up, and it’s something I maybe regretted in some of my career, in terms of injuries, you name it. You don’t want to show weakness, you don’t want to show that that you’re you’re not up to it. So it’s something that I learned, you’ve got a voice, speak up.”

And being on the other side, as chef de mission for Milan-Cortina, has given her an extra edge going into her return. That role was challenging in many ways – she reflects, “I made a lot of key decisions, and I guess some of the sports loved and some of the sports didn’t love that. You’re put in a lot of very tough situations. I learned an absolute ton doing that, and I loved it as well, knowing that you’re just like a very small part of what those athletes’ dreams are, and helping them achieve that.

“I’ve always been one worried about what other people think, but when you’re in that environment, You can’t keep everyone happy all the time. so I guess it’s kind of that mental resilience that I’ve probably built up, that’s helped me come back.”

Funnily enough, watching her former teammates compete in Cortina didn’t make her itch to get back on the ice – “I’m not sure I had enough spare time to even contemplate it” – but it was certainly an experience. “I’m a terrible watcher. I was awful at watching. I would much rather be on the ice any day. I’m a nervous wreck when I’m sitting watching.”

And as of now, Muirhead will be watching no longer, but back out on the ice where she’s always belonged.