When Eve Muirhead led the Great Britain women’s curlers to Winter Olympic gold in 2022, the Guardian hailed her as the “Iron Lady” because she appeared indestructible.
It didn’t matter that she had failed initially to qualify for the Games. Or that she had Covid before the last-ditch tournament that finally secured their place. Or that Team GB’s women lost four of their opening eight matches in Beijing – and were 4-0 down against Sweden in the semi-finals. Somehow she always found a way.
“It took me a while to kind of reflect back on it. But then it taught me a lot, as well about my whole support network, and who to let in when it comes to the Games.”
However, her lowest point came in May 2021 after the team had failed initially to qualify for Beijing. She remembers a debrief at the National Curling Centre, where she found “not a trace of warmth in its walls”, at a meeting with senior management. She writes: “The gist of the group bit was: ‘You were shit, you were shit, you were shit, oh, and you were shit.’”
Afterwards, Muirhead felt that no one checked in on her and her mental health spiralled to such an extent she ended up telling a team doctor: “I don’t want to be here. ‘Here’ wasn’t an ice rink, the British Curling elite athlete programme or the treadmill which should be culminating in a fourth Olympic Games,” she writes. “‘Here’ was far more general. As general as it comes. ‘I don’t want to be here.’ Full stop.”
Thankfully, Muirhead recovered and won a thrilling gold medal in Beijing with a 10-3 victory against Japan. Given her successes, it would have been easier to keep her struggles hidden, I tell her. But Muirhead insists that isn’t what she is about. “It was very difficult speaking about tough times within my career,” she says. “But I think it’s important that everybody knows that success isn’t linear. There’s ups and downs, and you go through different stages within your career. It was important to speak about that and be the real me. And that’s exactly what I did.”
There is no hiding the excitement in Muirhead’s voice as she considers the perils and excitement ahead. “There’s so much jeopardy. The margins are so, so small. You’re talking hundreds of thousands of a second or millimetres. But what we do know is we’ve got some fantastically talented athletes. And we’re doing all we can to create the perfect platform for them to perform.”
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. You can contact the mental health charity Mind by calling 0300 123 3393 or visiting mind.org.uk
In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
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