Eve Muirhead’s golden curlers sign off Olympics in style, attention turns to Paris 2024 – Best of Beijing

BEST MOMENTS OF DAY 16 It's curling home Ad/> It’s a day we thought may never arrive: Eve Muirhead is Olympic champion! Beijing 2022'Horrific' — BOA chief supports harsher ban for Russia if Valieva was deliberately doped39 MINUTES AGO Twenty years after Rhona Martin shipped down the ‘stone of destiny’ in Salt Lake City, Muirhead’s rink signed off a rollercoaster Games with a dominant win over Japan. We know the focus will rightly be on Muirhead after her four outings as skip from Vancouver to Beijing, via Sochi and PyeongChang. She calls the shots and plays the most decisive stones.

But it would be remiss to reduce her Scottish support cast of Vicky Wright, Jen Dodds and Hailey Duff to footnotes. So a big shout out to third Wright, who returned to the frontline as a surgical ward nurse during the Covid pandemic. A big shout out to second Dodds, who bounced back from medal heartbreak in the mixed doubles.

And a big shout out to lead Duff, who overcame adversity to fulfil her Olympic dream having been just yards away from the Manchester bomb attack at the Ariane Grande concert in 2017. What a journey for the quartet, plus alternate Mili Smith. They didn’t qualify for the Games automatically at the World Championships.

Had a team reshuffle. Won the Europeans. Almost bowed out in Beijing during the round-robin phase.

Fell 4-0 behind in the semi-final, then blew an 11-8 in the last end. After all that drama, you can forgive them for cruising across the line in the gold medal showdown. There is something magical about curling’s ability to suck us in every four years.