Eve Muirhead had, she thought, settled nicely into retirement.
Having walked away from curling four years ago after fulfilling her lifelong dream of becoming Olympic champion, Muirhead was excited to begin a new chapter of her life.
She wanted to pursue other interests and ambitions, dedicate herself to her new job as Team GB's Chef de Mission at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and, perhaps most pertinently, live like a “normal” person for the first time in well over a decade.
And retirement was going as well as Muirhead could possibly have hoped. Perhaps even better. Between the end of the 2022 Winter Olympics, where she skipped Team Muirhead to Olympic gold, and the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics, the Perthshire woman barely set foot on ice and she was, she recalls, thriving.
Which is why Muirhead’s recent announcement came as such a surprise.
The 36-year-old is back in the competitive sphere, and her aspirations are as lofty as ever.
When, last month, Muirhead revealed that she was making a comeback to curling, the news was met with considerable intrigue. After all, what compelled someone who has won everything in curling - Olympic, World and European titles, as well as raft of Grand Slams - to return to the cut-and-thrust of elite sport? And particularly, what compelled someone who had never even considered a comeback until the proposition was put to her, to return?
The answer, reveals Muirhead, ended up being simple.
"For a long time after Beijing 2022, coming back didn't come into my mind at all,” she says.
“Then British Curling reached out to me and they basically just said the door is open for me.
“I really didn't know if it would go anywhere, but I knew we had to have the conversation because I didn't want to have any regrets. British Curling explained the mixed doubles is a programme that they want to focus on more now and that definitely got me interested.
“In women's curling, I've accomplished what I wanted, which was becoming Olympic champion, but in mixed doubles, I haven't done that and so that's still a target for me. That's why I'm back. I've won world mixed doubles gold but I don't have that Olympic mixed doubles medal so that's what's made me hungry to come back.”
Muirhead returns to curling if not an entirely change person from the hyper-focussed teenager and young woman who went on to become one of the planet’s most successful female curlers ever, then certainly one with a different perspective.
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Having relocated south of the border in recent years, and also having turned her hand to several different vocations and hobbies since her retirement, Muirhead is something of a more rounded individual than she perhaps was in her younger days. And this will, she believes, benefit her significantly upon her return, which has been as seamless and she could ever have hoped.
“I feel like I've never been away from curling, which is a really good thing. Now it's just about getting the body used to going through the same repetitions again and again,” she explains.
“Some things will be the same as before, and some will be different, which is what makes it exciting. From my first career, I want to maintain my work ethic because I was one of those athletes who really did push the limits and did anything I could to be the best. So I want to make sure I still have that.
“But, having been away from curling and having had a job, I want to keep the lifestyle that I’ve developed over the past couple of years. I want to still do things like commentating, public speaking and everything else and just add-in the curling.
“I think that's healthy because, last time when I competed, all I did was curl. I’d go home and still be thinking about curling and I’d wake up thinking about curling. But now, there's a lot of different things going on for me and it's not a case of curling being 24-7. So it's about making time for everything else in my life but prioritising my training when I need to.”
And so while certain things will be different for Muirhead this time around, much will remain the same.
The Scot is not stepping into the unknown upon her return to curling having already dabbled in mixed doubles during the first portion of her career, despite her women’s team having always been her primary focus. A world mixed doubles title in 2022 give a glimpse of Muirhead’s potential in mixed doubles and indeed, that she has teamed-up, once again, with Bobby Lammie, with whom she won her world title four years ago, was a major draw. However, in contrast to her women’s team, which was almost always a certain pick for major championships, Muirhead and Lammie’s selection as GB’s representative at the 2030 Winter Olympics is far from certain. Standing in her and Lammie’s way for selection for the 2030 Games will be Muirhead’s former teammate and fellow Olympic gold medallist, Jen Dodds and her partner, Orrin Carson, as well as another of her Olympic gold medal-winning teammates, Vicky Drummond and her partner, Euan Kyle.
In the coming days, Muirhead's comeback will begin for real.
The Scot's first taste of competitive action for over four years will come at the Scottish Mixed Doubles Championships, which begin in Aberdeen on the 1st October and while she’s aware all eyes will be upon her - that’s the consequence of being the most widely-recognised name in British curling - Muirhead is refusing to heap undue pressure upon herself both at the Scottish Championships, and for the foreseeable future. Her ultimate goal, though, remains as ambitious as her goals have always been.
“This year especially, I'm not looking at results because I just have no idea how Bobby and I are going to get on. And in some ways, I don't want to do too brilliantly because we don't want to peak too early,” she says.
“One thing I've got to be very conscious of is that I don't put too much pressure on myself and I don't let external pressures get to me. That's going to be tough because I know that I'm someone who really wants to win. But I'm going to need to have patience.
“I'm not in this just for fun, though - I wouldn't do it unless I thought I could be successful. I feel like I've got one more Olympic cycle in me and if I didn't think I had it in me to give it everything, I wouldn't be back. But making the mixed doubles team is going to be very, very tough and there's a long road between now and the 2030 Olympics.
“I want to enjoy it but I also need to be aware there's going to be times I will be out my comfort zone and there's going to be times I'm under a lot of pressure - but that's what helps me compete well, I think.
“And at the end of it, of course a second Olympic gold medal would be amazing - but there’s a long way to go before then.”
