Previous Page Olympic Curling Gold 2002It is safe to say that curling has never generated such publicity in the United Kingdom as it did after the quartet led by Rhona Martin won gold in the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.Martin skipped the rink of Fiona MacDonald, Janice Rankin, Debbie Knox and reserve Margaret Morton, who made a brief appearance in the early stages of the competition, to Britain's first Olympic gold medal since the "Torvill and Dean" triumph during the Sarajevo games of 1984. The four ladies who made up the team were not without top-level experience and had shown their potential in 2000 when finishing fourth in the World Championships, including a success in the group stage over their eventual semi-final conquerors, Kelley Law's Canadian rink in that competition. Martin had previously won a silver medal at the 1998 European Championships and was Scottish Ladies Champion in 2000, but her participation in the Salt Lake City was only possible after she underwent knee surgery in 2001 and even then her place was in doubt as she spent three days in hospital with a stomach complaint just a week before the Games began. The path to glory was far from smooth, despite an opening victory over Norway in the match of the nine game round-robin group stages.That had seemed to set the team up for a successful run and although they lost to Sweden in their second game they still appeared well on course to make progress after a return to form saw them requiring only one win from their final two matches to gain a place in the last four. However, when they slipped to defeats, firstly at the hands of the United States and then against Germany, they appeared to be heading for an early trip home. They finished the group with a record of five wins and four defeats, which meant that they were involved in a three-way play-off for the fourth qualifying place. All was not lost, therefore, and if they could beat the Swedes and then the Germans, both of whom they had lost to in the group, then they would progress into the last four.Somehow, they managed to put their previous disappointments behind them to first of all beat the Swedes 6-4 and then, more comfortably, see off the Germans by a 9-5 margin. They earned what had looked to be an unlikely semi-final tie against the powerful Canadian rink, who were the favourites for the gold medal. Confident now, after their run of success the British rink pulled off a shock 6-5 win over old foe Kelley Law's rink, with the Canadians, who had gone into the semi-final as top seeds after only losing one of their initial nine group games, left to battle for bronze. The Swiss rink, skipped by Luiza Ebnoether comfortably defeated the United States by 9-4 in the other semi-final and were to be the Martin's opponents in the gold medal match-up. Such was the public interest that the BBC changed its schedule to ensure that the success was covered live and a television audience of nearly six million sat enthralled for almost three hours as the match remained a closely contested affair. It was so close, in fact, that at the end of the ninth end, the score was 3-3 and an extra end was required. Martin, keeping her nerve under enormous pressure, duly delivered the vital stone and success was secured. The fragility of success in sport was clearly depicted when the Olympic heroines promptly lost in the finals of the Scottish Championships in their first outing after their Salt Lake City triumph.Beaten by Julie Lockhart's rink they missed out on the chance to carry on their run into the World Championships. Instead it was Lockhart's team who carried the hopes of Scotland to North Dakota - and they did not let the country down as they swept to success! Sometimes unfairly depicted in some sections of the media as "a bunch of housewives out to do some sweeping" the five ladies became household names almost overnight as the nation celebrated their success. They were further honoured when they were each awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 2002. Written by: Dave Low | 
