It’s all about Eve as Great Britain’s search for a record fifth Winter Olympic medal comes down to today’s women’s curling semi-final.
Four medals so far at these Games equals the previous best performances – in Chamonix 1924 and four years ago in Sochi.
But UK Sport funding officials are looking for five podium places as a return for their £28million investment.
That puts the pressure firmly on Muirhead, whose rink, including Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams and Lauren Gray, take on Sweden today for a shot at gold this weekend.
Memories of four years ago – when they lost a last-four match to Canada – are burned in the Scot’s memory, though tears later turned to cheers when she took the bronze medal.
Muirhead said: “That was the worst loss of my career, it’s the hardest thing I’ve had to deal with in curling,” said Muirhead.
“Even though we claimed the bronze medal after that it took me a long time to get over because, I felt, we were so close to winning the gold. “I do believe you learn more about yourself in these situations and become stronger for it. I’ve played three Olympics now, that experience is in the bank. I know I’ve been there and I know what it will feel like.”
In contrast, Swedish skip Anna Hasselborg is making her Olympic debut in Pyeongchang and she has recent history with Muirhead.
The Scot beat her to claim bronze in last year’s world championship and again to win the European title in December.
However, Hasselborg edged their encounter during the round-robin stages and is viewed as one of the sport’s rising stars.
It’s 16 years since Rhona Martin delivered the stone of destiny to win curling gold for Great Britain – a match an 11-year old Muirhead was allowed to stay up and watch in the early hours.
Martin was part of her coaching team in Sochi but quit two years ago, with Muirhead recruiting four-time world champion Glenn Howard, a Canadian considered a legend in the sport, to take her place.
“We all know what Rhona did for the sport in 2002, she put it on the map and changed everything for the people that followed her,” added Muirhead.
“What she did led to the funding we receive and the facilities we get to train on. We may not be in this position if it wasn’t for her and, of course, we’d like to do our bit for the Olympians in the future.”
Meanwhile, Kyle Smith hopes to learn the lessons of his Olympic curling disappointment and come back stronger in four years.
The British skip was downbeat after losing 9-5 to Switzerland in a play-off tiebreaker yesterday, meaning he finishes fifth on his Olympic debut and just failing to make the semi-finals.
The game was close throughout but the tactical experience of rival skip Benoit Schwarz showed in the ninth end when he grabbed a five to put the contest out of reach and set up a last-four match with favourites Sweden. But Smith should take inspiration from fellow Scot Muirhead, who was just 19 when she made her debut at the Olympics in Vancouver, finishing seventh. “We gave it our best shot but that’s the dream over. I’ll take a lot from the experience coming to the Olympic Games with my best friends and my wee brother, that’s something you dream of as a boy,” said Smith, a former world junior champion.
“There are lots of positives to take from this and learn from. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves in some of the tighter games. We were two wins and three losses and we’ve got back into the tournament beating some of the best teams in the world. “It’s a sore one, we gave ourselves the chance of making the semi-finals but we couldn’t make it happen.”