Rebecca Morrison leads British curlers into post-Muirhead era

Life after Eve Muirhead begins this weekend for British Curling with Rebecca Morrison skipping an all-new podium team. Muirhead's world-beating rink has broken up with Jennifer Dodds choosing to focus solely on mixed doubles and Hailey Duff opting for Beth Farmer's ‘foundation' level team. Ad Farmer was publicly announced as Team Muirhead's new lead in early July before the skip's decision to retire came a month later.

Curling'Hardest decision' — Olympic champion Muirhead retires from curling11/08/2022 AT 11:43 Muirhead and vice-skip Vicky Wright's both opted to step away from the sport after an incredible season that yielded Olympic and European titles. «The start of a new Olympiad is inevitably a time of both change and opportunity for our leading curlers,» said Olympic Head Coach David Murdoch. «Everyone on the British Curling programme is looking forward to seeing how the players who have been selected respond to that.» Taking up the mantle are Morrison, vice-skip Gina Aitken, second Sophie Sinclair and lead Sophie Jackson.

The quartet were part of the widely heralded nine-strong squad system that British Curling put in place after failing to finish in the top six at the 2021 World Curling Championships. 25-year-old Glaswegian Morrison, a former competitive snowboarder, led her team to the Scottish title in February in the absence of Team Muirhead. That saw them qualify for the 2022 Worlds but their campaign was ruined by Covid-19 with five members of the wider team testing positive.