Olympic gold medallist and nurse Vicky Wright receives hero’s welcome as she returns to work

Great British curling star Vicky Wright found herself rapt with emotion as she returned for her first shift back at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert since winning an Olympic gold medal at Beijing 2022.

The 28-year-old vice-skip was a key member of the Team GB women’s curling team that triumphed over Japan 10-3 in the final to claim the country’s only gold of the Games, and the first curling title since Salt Lake City 2002.

Ward B11, where Wright has worked as a National Health Service (NHS) nurse the last seven years, was adorned with bunting and balloons as colleagues lined up to applaud and cheer their newly crowned Olympic champion.

Speaking to the Press Association (PA), Wright revealed that she was moved by the homecoming reception:

“It’s good to be back. It was an amazing welcome.

“I was really happy, I was totally overcome, I burst into tears.”

In March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began to tighten its grip on the world, Wright was with Team Muirhead in Canada preparing to compete in the women's curling World Championships.

As soon as the competition was cancelled, the nurse got on a plane and immediately returned to her ward which had been requisitioned for COVID patients. It meant that she was on the front-line as the virus raged.

Two years on the curler moved to work part-time to be able to train for the Games and Wright expressed her gratitude for those that enabled her to go on and represent her country on the world’s greatest sporting stage:

“I wouldn’t have my gold medal around my neck if it wasn’t for all my colleagues,” Wright continued to PA. “They have supported me so well and this medal is as much as their as mine.

“I don’t think anyone in the NHS has been able to summarise the effect