Rhona Martin will forever be etched in British sporting folklore for the ‘Stone of Destiny’ that won gold for Team GB at Salt Lake City 2002. It was Britain’s first Winter Olympic gold medal in a generation.
The facts
Born: Dunlop, East Ayrshire
Age: 56
Olympics: Salt Lake 2002, Turin 2006
Olympic medals: Gold 2002
The journey
Destiny curled through doubt and cut a curious path for Rhona Martin.
It would take her a decade to graduate from junior to senior level and she toiled in her attempts to fend off domestic competition and win the Scottish title.
Ten months before Salt Lake 2002, Martin was battling back from knee surgery following an on-ice injury that kept her out for the whole of the pre-Olympic season.
READ MORE: Winter Tale - Rhona Martin
Then with the Olympics just days away, she got ill with a stomach problem. Very ill.
So ill that coaches considered calling up a reserve and she had to be separated from her team-mates Janice Rankin, Fiona MacDonald, Deborah Knox and Margaret Morton.
Rhona recovered just in time for the start of the round-robin competition and there was no sign of sluggishness - the team sprinted out, winning five of their first seven group games.
But the ship lurched starboard once again and back-to-back defeats to USA and Germany meant Team GB needed to win two tie-breakers just to reach the semi-finals.
They did just that and then saw off Switzerland with the last stone of a cagey, low-scoring final, cueing bedlam at the Ogden Ice Sheet.
The inspiration
Martin’s timeless triumph was Team GB’s maiden title in women’s curling and their first in the sport since 1924.
It also ended a lean run of Winter Olympic success and was the first British gold at the Games since Torvill and Dean in 1984.
Martin remains the fulcrum of Scottish curling and in 2007 she became an elite coach with the Scottish Institute of Sport and continues as a pundit with BBC Sport.
Her feats in Salt Lake echoed down the years and fired the imagination of a certain Eve Muirhead, who has been mentored by Martin on a long-term basis.
"I wanted to follow in Rhona's footsteps. I wanted to do what she did because I remember staying up watching it,” Muirhead said.
Jennifer Dodds, an Olympian in Beijing, said: “Watching Rhona win was the moment that made me aware that you could actually go to the Olympics with curling.
“I remember watching it the day after – it was a late match and because I was so young, I wasn’t allowed to watch it live so I watched a replay the next morning. That was a real moment for me and it was when I thought right, I want to do this.”
The legacy
Muirhead picked up where Martin left off, making her Olympic debut at Vancouver 2010 aged 19 and becoming the youngest skip to win an Olympic medal with bronze at Sochi 2014.
After a near miss in PyeongChang, Muirhead - alongside Dodds, Vicky Wright and Hailey Duff - claimed a fairytale Olympic gold after a topsy-turvy campaign in Beijing.
In the aftermath of Muirhead’s own golden Olympic moment, Martin was the first to congratulate the winning team.
🇺🇸 Salt Lake City 2002: Rhona Martin is skip as Team GB win women's curling gold 🥇
— Eurosport (@eurosport) February 20, 2022
🇨🇳 #Beijing2022: @TeamGB win women's curling gold once again 🥇
🇬🇧 A beautiful moment between Olympic champions ❤️🥌@BritishCurling | @Team_Muirhead pic.twitter.com/YRB5csCw2L
Muirhead said: "To have this moment now and know that I followed in Rhona's footsteps and have this gold medal around my neck, is something very, very special.
"I can't thank Rhona enough for all of her help and support through the years to help me get here."
Martin added: "I’ve known Eve for so long and I’m just so happy for her, knowing what she’s gone through in the last year.
“She’s very driven and very determined and has the resilience to just keep fighting. She has the temperament that leads a team so well.
“Eve can be hard on them but you need to be. She encourages and supports and gets the best out of each player.”
Rebecca Morrison assumed the title of Britain’s lead skip after Muirhead’s retirement post-Beijing and started the road to Milan-Cortina 2026 with a European bronze medal on her major Championship debut.
Rhona and her team were described as 'housewives with brooms' in media reports during the Salt Lake Games. A huge part of her legacy will be the way in which she changed perceptions of women in curling and women in sport more generally.
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