Eve Muirhead saw most things in her curling career but never a Winter Youth Olympics.
Now leading Team GB at Gangwon 2024, Muirhead believes that the path to the pinnacle of her sport would have been smoother if she had.
“I never competed in a multi-sport environment until the Olympics,” she said. “I didn’t have that understanding of what comes with a Games.
“The Youth Olympics is the closest thing to an Olympics that you’re ever going to get - it really has that feel about it. You can learn so much from it moving forward.”
Muirhead made her Olympic debut aged 19 at Vancouver 2010 and became the youngest skip to win an Olympic medal with bronze at Sochi 2014.
The Perth native is better equipped than anyone to understand the pressures and priorities of the young cohort she is leading in Korea.
“When you’re young, you’re always going to have these great expectations of yourself,” she said, “but for some of these athletes, this is just the start. For others, this could be the pinnacle.
“If they can learn, enjoy it and make some friends along the way, that’s success. Our values as a team will be to compete, to learn and to share.
“Being part of Team GB is a very unique opportunity and the preparation we’ve had for the Youth Olympics has been no different to what I did ahead of the Olympics.
“It’s a smaller scale, but all of the same principles are in place. For our athletes, it’s a chance to go and show what they’re all about.”
Despite never having competed at a Youth Olympics, Muirhead has seen first hand the value of the event. She worked with World Curling as an athlete role model at Innsbruck 2012 and Mili Smith, part of her gold medal-winning rink in Beijing, went to the 2016 Games.
As Team GB’s Chef de Mission, Muirhead is leading a diverse squad of 39 athletes who will compete in 11 of the 15 sports on the programme.
Having retired from competition last summer, the 33-year-old is relishing a very different Games challenge.
“Of course, I’m nervous, it’s only natural as curling was my comfort zone,” she said. “It’s a different kind of nervous though. I’m not going there with the pressure of competing but I’m going there to make sure the athletes’ competing journeys are as good as they can be.
“I’m the kind of person who gives everything to my role - I never want to do anything half-hearted. To be honest, it’s probably been one of the most insightful and enjoyable things that I’ve done.
“I’ve learned so much from being on the other side of things. It gives you so much respect for the people who make the Games run and make those journeys as smooth as possible.”
Sportsbeat 2024