Eve Muirhead insists she is ready to start making the sacrifices worth it as her Scottish rink prepare to get underway at the World Curling Championships in Latvia.
Muirhead made her Olympic debut at Vancouver 2010 and did so with the expectation of winning Britain’s first curling medal since Rhona Martin’s gold at Salt Lake 2002.
The 22-year-old had won the world junior title for the past three years running but her Team GB rink didn’t make it past the round-robin stage in Vancouver.
The experience opened Muirhead’s eyes and she immediately won senior world silver with another world junior title and European gold and two silvers following in the years since.
And, with Muirhead almost certain to skip the British team at the next Olympics in Sochi next year, she’s adamant she can now deliver when it matters most.
She will begin her campaign at the World Championships in Riga against Canada’s Rachel Homan on Saturday and she said: “Vancouver did the world of good for me.
“We did go in as medal hopefuls but didn’t come away with a medal and I learnt a lot. I didn’t really train hard enough and didn’t have enough ice time showed by the fact that we didn’t medal.
“So I have upped everything and made a lot of sacrifices. I learnt so, so much from Vancouver that I can take to Sochi, it won’t be as big of an eye opener.
“The team are better than last year, ten times better. We had our way and won European gold in 2011 but we are a way better team now.
“We played really well at the Europeans but the final just wasn’t one of our better games. Silver isn’t the end of the world and all those events are a stepping stone to Sochi.”
© Sportsbeat 2013