Eve Muirhead returns from retirement for Alpes 2030; seeks Olympic mixed doubles medal
Curling legend Eve Muirhead returns from retirement for Alpes 2030 Olympic cycle: “I’ve got unfinished business” - exclusive
Eve Muirhead returns from retirement for Alpes 2030: “I’ve got unfinished business” - exclusive
Eve Muirhead speaks exclusively to Olympics.com on the Alpes 2030 as “phase two” of her legendary career, her mixed doubles ambitions, and inspiring female athletes.
Curling gold medallist Eve Muirhead will return from a four-year retirement to begin her fifth Olympic cycle for the Alpes 2030 Winter Olympics.
After claiming her 12-year-long journey to Olympic gold in Beijing 2022 as skip of Team GB’s women’s team, she signed out that year as an Olympic, World, and European champion.
“How am I signing back in?” she asks rhetorically, smiling in response during an exclusive interview with Olympics.com .
“I’m signing back in with an opportunity I want to grab with both hands. It’s an opportunity I never, ever thought I would have.”
Ahead of the 2030 Games, which will take place 20 years on from her Olympic debut as a 19-year-old in Vancouver 2010 , a revamped Team GB mixed doubles programme – in an event she has never competed in at the Olympic Games – has given Muirhead new missions.
“Number one, to decentralise British curling,” she says. “And number two, to do the Olympics with Bobby Lammie .
“I feel like within the team game, I’ve achieved what I set out to achieve at the start of my career. But I’ve got unfinished business within mixed doubles . I’ve got that competitive drive back, and I want to return stronger than ever.
“ I’ve got one last cycle in me .”
JPN - GBR - Women’s Gold Medal Match - Curling | Beijing 2022 Replays
This event took place on 20
2022 at the Nat. Aquatics Ctr - Sheet B. Final Score: GBR 10:3 JPN. Great Britain claimed the gold medal. Japan won silver and Sweden took home the bronze
Muirhead’s final achievement before retirement in 2022 was to win the mixed doubles world championship with compatriot Lammie. It completed her full set of world titles.
Four years on, the end has been built into a new beginning.
The mixed doubles curling event was introduced in PyeongChang 2018 , where Team GB did not enter a team. In Beijing 2022 and Milano Cortina 2026 , Bruce Mouat and Jennifer Dodds posted two consecutive fourth-place finishes, falling just short.
With a new dedicated domestic training and funding programme for the event, Muirhead has her eyes set on bringing back the medal that has eluded the team.
“I think British Curling see an opportunity there,” she says, sitting in front of a vast array of medals and souvenirs from Olympic, continental and global competitions from a career that began in Scotland some two decades ago.
“They’ve just missed out on medals in the last couple of Games, so I understand why they want to focus a little bit more on it, and I think that’s fantastic.
“(Bobby and I) won the world championships, but I hadn’t had the opportunity to go to the Olympic Games for mixed doubles. So that, of course, is my ultimate goal in coming back.”
Eve Muirhead on returning for the French Alps Olympic Games 2030: “This is phase two of my career”
How would Muirhead describe her four-year curling hiatus?
“Busy. Very, very busy,” she laughs.
“I’m the kind of person that always needs a goal to drive towards. I made sure that when I retired, I wasn’t just sitting at home and twiddling my thumbs.”
Her retirement was far from passive. In between writing a book and working as a general manager for curling Team Alpine that came third in the curling’s new professional league, Muirhead found time to get into Hyrox events, run a 3:25:13 marathon, and continue her avid interest in golf.
“I’m probably the fittest I’ve ever been right now,” she says. “Of course, I need to get back to being curling fit. But I think it will come back pretty quickly.
“Everyone who knows me knows I never do anything half-hearted . If I want to do something I will, and I’ll give it my all. I bent over backwards for Beijing; I put in every ounce of dedication, work, sweat, blood, tears , and I’m determined to do that again.”
In her book, she reflected on her career and speaking candidly about the mental health struggles that preceded Beijing 2022’s golden high.
“When I retired, 100 per cent it was the right thing to do,” Muirhead affirms.
“My curling career was never plain-sailing. In elite sports it’s never going to be. But there were a few factors that resulted in me retiring in 2022, and one was that I was kind of scared to go back in case I encountered or went through what I went through prior (to Beijing) with those tough times, mentally.
“I needed that time off and I needed the kind of change of scene to rebuild my energy. But I also want to look at this as phase two of my career.
“I hope it can inspire other athletes, especially women , of the power of change. Whether it’s having a sabbatical, or having a family, relocating, or having another job on the side, that it’s possible to come back.
“You look at the likes of Serena Williams and Lindsey Vonn , they have done exactly that, and I think sometimes it can bring you back even stronger.
“In curling, we’re losing too many women who are dropping out. I really want to be one of the role models to bring them back, to keep them and rebuild that desire, that energy, and get them back to the high-performance environment.
“What British Curling do is great, they’ve been really accommodating since I relocated and decentralised to England. I never thought that opportunity would be there.”
Eve Muirhead (front row, centre) served as Great Britain’s chef-de-mission at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games.
Muirhead: “I’ve never experienced the ‘Olympic blues’ like what I did after Milano Cortina”
Four years on from winning Team GB’s sole gold medal in Beijing 2022 – their first in curling in 20 years – a retired Muirhead was the team’s chef-de-mission in a Winter Games that made more British history.
Eve Muirhead: From curling gold to Team GB chef de mission for Winter Olympics 2026
Affectionately known as the ‘Ice Queen’ throughout her career, she oversaw her delegation to their most successful Winter Games at Milano Cortina 2026, leaving with a record five medals, three gold.
“I was very lucky that my job out there was a very, very small part of those athletes’ dreams out there,” Muirhead, whose role involved looking after the many moving cogs and details in the Games process, reflected.
“It’s very different being on the other side of the fence; I learnt an absolute ton.
“As an athlete, sometimes you feel like you have it easy. You turn up, and everything’s in front of you. Being on that other side, I was the person making sure that everything was in front of the athlete so they can forget about everything apart from their performance.
“An athlete will be making sure they get enough sleep, eating the right fuel, knowing when they’re competing, being on the bus at the right time. The role I was in, I was waking up not knowing what was ahead of me – whether it was plumbing issues to nervous athletes, illness, injury – you name it, you’re running on adrenaline when you’re at the Games.
“Every day was very different; it challenged me in a lot of ways. I think that 100 per cent helped me grow as a person, build confidence, and then I know for a fact it’s going to help me move into this next phase of my career.”
While Muirhead competed at four Olympic Games as an athlete, her fifth required a completely new physical and mental endurance.
“I’ve never experienced the ‘Olympic blues’ like what I did after Milano Cortina,” Muirhead recalls.
“It was funny. When were out at the Games a lot of the staff told me to make sure I had time off when I got back, that it would hit me. I was just like ‘yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine’. But when I got back, within days, I was just knackered, I didn’t know what to do with myself. It was the blues after carrying all that adrenaline.”
Muirhead found it was a different adrenaline to playing, as she watched the women’s team slip out of contention during the round robin before the men’s team took silver in the final.
“I hate watching,” she says. “I absolutely hate it. It’s always been like that, even when I watched my brothers when I was younger. I try not to show any nerves, but I’m a wreck in the stands. Give me the ice any day.”
Eve Muirhead won gold as Great Britain’s curling skip at Beijing 2022.
Muirhead calls Great Britain an “emerging nation” of the Winter Olympics. After all, at Muirhead’s debut Games in 2010, Great Britain won only one gold, and her curling rink did not come close to the medal round.
“My first Games, when I was 19, we finished seventh,” Muirhead remembers. “It wasn’t the position we wanted, but it drives you forward. You learn a ton from. If it wasn’t from finishing down the table at my first Games, I probably wouldn’t be here as an Olympic champion.
“In Milano Cortina, seeing the athletes on top of the podium, I’m very lucky that I can relate to what that feeling is. Once you’re an Olympic champion, no one can ever take that away from you . It’s something that sticks with you forever, and every athlete dreams of. It’s something I would do anything to have again .
“Of course, that’s my ultimate goal. If I didn’t think it was possible I wouldn’t be sitting here announcing my comeback.”
Picture by 2022 Getty Images