Byline: NEIL WILSON reports from Vancouver
replica rolexTHE latest episode of The Simpsons shown on television channels here had Homer and Madge representing the United States in the Olympic curling.
It is the classic image of the sport -- cold-climate bowls, sweeping with scoring, a place to keep those beyond their sporting prime from a rocking chair on the porch.
So welcome to the Vancouver Olympic Centre, the hottest ticket in town in this curling-crazy country with the packed 6,000-seat arena, the biggest for the sport.
'The atmosphere in the stadium is fantastic,' said Eve Muirhead, Britain's skip, after dispatching world champions China 5-4. 'The whole place was buzzing.
Even without the Canadians playing, the place is packed.' Muirhead is the antithesis of the Simpsons image -- 19, blonde, toned, a woman who also plays golf off a handicap of two.
And she is not the youngest. Germany's Stella Heiss is 17. Chris Plys, 22, the US skip, is a member of a rock band.
Muirhead is talked about among the knowledgable locals as the 'dark horse'. She won the world junior title for a third time last year in Canada, but can she emulate 2002 Olympic gold medallist Rhona Martin, a 35-year-old housewife when she won? Martin, here as a BBC analyst, certainly believes first-time Olympian Muirhead can medal.
'It is hard not to be impressed by Eve,' said Martin. 'She is only 19 but has a mature head on her shoulders and is so determined to win.' Muirhead's team faced a huge obstacle in the first game. China, skipped by Bingyu 'Betty' Wang, lost only one game in winning last year's world championships.
Coach Nancy Murdoch said: 'Getting anything from today out of China was a bonus.' Britain lost their second game to defending champions Sweden 6-4 after recovering to 5-4 down.
rolex replicaMuirhead said: 'As Olympic champions they were always going to be tough to beat. I think we have to take a lot of positives out of the second half of the game. If you had asked me yesterday if we would have settled for one on one after day one, then we would. We have played two of the best teams.' Seven games to go but Jackie Lockhart, a former world champion who is Muirhead's vice-skip and one of the oldies at 44, thinks the young one she guides has what it takes to 'do a Martin'.
pandora style beads'I don't want to tempt fate, but we have done everything we possibly could have done to succeed,' she said. 'I am confident we can do ourselves justice.' A historian wrote of curling's introduction to the Games in 1998 that it furthered the International Olympic Committee's movement towards democracy by allowing 'non-athletes to take part'. Success for Muirhead would help rewrite history.
Britain's men, meanwhile, finished on the wrong end of a dramatic round-robin match against Switzerland yesterday.
Skip David Murdoch failed to clinch victory with the last stone of the 10th and final end, leaving the Swiss 4-3 winners.
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CAPTION(S):
In with a shout: Eve Muirhead barks out her orders during Britain's second game against Sweden
AP
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