All about Eve – how Muirhead completed journey from junior glory to Olympic gold

Eve Muirhead was eight years old when her father Gordon served as alternate on the Scotland team that swept to the world men’s curling title in Moncton, Canada in 1999.

Born into such a renowned curling family – her brother Thomas would win a world junior crown in 2013 – it seemed inevitable that Muirhead would seek to follow in her father’s footsteps – and ultimately surpass his achievements with her Olympic triumph in Beijing on Sunday.

Born in Perth, Muirhead was 16 years old when her team cruised through her national championship unbeaten and won what would be her first of four world junior titles in five years in Eveleth.

So precocious was her talent that she was chosen to skip the Great Britain women’s senior team in the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010 at the age of just 19.

But it proved to be a chastening experience for Muirhead, whose team – including vastly experienced campaigners like Jackie Lockhart and Kelly Wood – failed to gel, winning just three of their nine round-robin matches and being swiftly eliminated.

The following year Muirhead won the last of her world junior crowns and gradually began to make more of an impression in the senior ranks.

In 2013, Muirhead beat Sweden’s Margaretha Sigfridsson to become the youngest skip to win a world title.

Heading to her second Olympics in Sochi in 2014, Muirhead tasted the disappointment of semi-final defeat but rallied to beat Switzerland and set another record as the youngest skip to win an Olympic medal.

But there was disappointment four years later in Japan when Muirhead’s highly fancied rink had to settle for another bronze medal play-off – and this time her nerve failed her as she missed a relatively simple shot to win the match.

Muirhead subsequently