CurlingZone: Muirhead filling in at Euro Super Series

Reigning Olympic gold medalist Eve Muirhead (Photo: Celine Stucki/WCF) is back, taking on super spare duties at this weekend's Euro Super Series.

By: Cameron Sallaj

Following the end of a historic 2021-22 season, Great Britain's Eve Muirhead announced her retirement from competitive curling. The Brit went out on top of the game, securing gold at both the 2021 European Curling Championships and the 2022 Winter Olympics with her new squad as well as a world title in mixed doubles with partner Bobbie Lammie. She also ranked third in the world for the season, closely behind Canada's Kerri Einarson and Tracy Fleury.

Despite her retirement, Muirhead has remained involved in curling, playing in the Perth Super League last season. She has also been named the Chef de Mission for Great Britain at the 2024 Youth Olympic Games to take place in February in Gangwon, South Korea.

This week in Stirling at the National Training Academy, Muirhead is back playing competitively for the first time since the 2022 World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship. She has taken on the role of super spare for the Michele Jaeggi lineup from Bern, Switzerland who was unable to find a fourth player. Muirhead slotted in at third on the team, with Stefanie Berset at second and Lisa Muhmenthaler rounding out the squad at lead.

In their opening game, the Jaeggi rink took on the newly formed Fay Henderson team, which includes Muirhead's fellow gold medal teammate Hailey Duff. The Henderson team opened the scoring with a steal of one in the second but Team Jaeggi battled back with steals in the fourth, fifth, and sixth ends to lead 5-1. Duff's squad would get two points back in the seventh end but it wouldn't be enough as Jaeggi ran them out of rocks in the eighth end for an opening 5-3 victory.

Their second game of the event saw the team take on Italy's Stefania Constantini from Cortina d'Ampezzo. After trailing 3-1, Jaeggi counted two for the team to tie things up at the halfway point. The Italian team dominated the second half, however, scoring a pair of deuces while Jaeggi only counted two singles, handing the team their first loss 7-5.

Despite the loss, Team Jaeggi bounced back nicely in their third game, never trailing en route to a 7-1 win over Stirling's Tia Laurie. After opening up a 4-1 lead, the team stole three consecutive singles to end the game early after just six ends.

Now with a 2-1 record, the Jaeggi rink are in good position to qualify for the six-team playoff round that begins Saturday. The squad wraps up round robin play Saturday afternoon at 1:30 PM British Time against Robyn Munro with the quarterfinals set to begin later in the evening.

Watch live action and replays from the Euro Super Series on Recast: https://the.recast.app/home.

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