Winter Olympics 2022: Team GB men’s and women’s curlers win medals in Beijing

Team GB’s women’s curling team won gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics with a dominant victory in Sunday’s final.

It was the first and only top prize that the Brits were able to secure in Beijing with the games being brought to a close later today.

Milli Smith, Hailey Duff, Jennifer Dodds, Vicky Wright and Eve Muirhead secured a dominant 10-3 victory over Japan.

They went one better than their male counterparts who secured Team GB’s first medal of the 2022 games with silver after they were narrowly defeat by Sweden in their own gold medal game.

Ross Whyte, Bruce Mouat, Grant Hardie, Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan Jr suffered a 12-11 extra end defeat on Saturday morning.

Muirhead savours gold medal after ‘dream come true’ for Team GB skip

“This is a moment I dreamed of as a young child,” said Team GB skip Eve Muirhead.

“Having lost two semi-finals then come through that great battle against Sweden, we knew this was an opportunity we might never get again.

“It has definitely been a rollercoaster journey for the whole team. From not finishing the top six at the world championships, we had to come back and it was hard.

“There were times I wanted to throw my shoes in the cupboard and never get them out again. But we all came back and got this new team together and came through the Europeans and the qualifiers.

“There have been ups and downs, there have been a couple of positive tests, but here we are, five very healthy girls with gold medals around our necks.

“It was emotional, for sure. I managed to hold it in until the flag was getting raised - it’s a moment that I’ve been waiting for for so many years.

“I’ve been close so many times but I just haven’t been over the line. The girls have helped me become a better curler and they’ve also helped me become a better person. Without them, I wouldn’t be here and it’s such an incredible, incredible moment.”

Team GB win silver in tense men’s curling final

Team GB won their first medal of the 2022 Winter Olympics as the men’s curling team took silver following a final defeat to Sweden.

Bruce Mouat, Hammy McMillan, Bobby Lammie and Grant Hardie put in a valiant effort against their more experienced opponents but came up agonisingly short as the favourites won 5-4.

Hardie’s pressure shot in the tenth end secured a point for Great Britain to tie things up at 4-4 and take the match to a first extra end.

Sweden had the hammer in a tense closing affair and did enough to secure the win without playing their final stone.

There were lots of positives for the young Scottish side, who many expected to get stronger over the coming years, but ultimately it was a disappointing end to a fantastic week.

Bobby Lammie and Hammy McMillan spoke to the BBC after the match in an emotional interview.

Lammie said: “Gutted for the boys, we fought back well in the second half and gave ourselves a good position and just couldn’t quite get over the line.

“Looking back it’s been a strong week for us but right now it hurts.”

McMillan added: “We’ve had a good week , it’s now how we wanted to end it but we’ll look back and be proud.

“They started strong and didn’t’ give us an inch, we weren’t at our best at the start but fought back and gave ourselves a chance.”

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