Eve Muirhead returns, targets 2030 cycle

Eve Muirhead said on August 6 that she is returning from retirement and will begin a fifth Olympic cycle with the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps. The 2022 Olympic gold medalist told Olympics.com that the next stretch of her career is “phase two” and said she has “unfinished business” in mixed doubles. The decision comes four years after Muirhead retired from curling in August 2022, after leaving the sport as an Olympic, world and European champion. Olympics.com said the 2030 Games will come 20 years after her Olympic debut at Vancouver 2010. ### Why is Eve Muirhead returning now? Muirhead told Olympics.com that her experience around Team GB at Milano-Cortina helped bring back her appetite to compete. In a January 2026 interview with the same outlet, she said she had been appointed Team GB’s chef de mission for Milano-Cortina in May 2024 and described the role as leading, managing and supporting the British delegation. On August 6, she said that return to an Olympic environment had helped reignite her competitive drive. (olympics.com) The 35-year-old said the comeback is tied to an opportunity she did not expect to have. “I’m signing back in with an opportunity I want to grab with both hands,” she told Olympics.com. She said the target is not another run in the women’s team event, where she won bronze at Sochi 2014 and gold at Beijing 2022, but a new campaign in mixed doubles. (olympics.com) ### What exactly is “phase two” of her career? Olympics.com reported that Muirhead described the Alpes 2030 cycle as “phase two” of her career. She said she feels she achieved what she set out to achieve in the team game and now wants to pursue mixed doubles, an Olympic event she has not previously contested at the Games. (olympics.com) Muirhead said that new phase has two goals: “to decentralise British curling” and “to do the Olympics with Bobby Lammie.” Bobby Lammie has been part of Scotland and Britain’s elite curling setup, and Muirhead said he is central to the mixed doubles plan she now wants to build toward 2030. ### Why is mixed doubles the focus this time? (olympics.com) Olympics.com said Team GB has a revamped mixed doubles programme ahead of the 2030 cycle, giving Muirhead what it described as new missions. Muirhead said mixed doubles is where she feels she still has work left to do, saying, “I’ve got unfinished business within mixed doubles.” (olympics.com) The event also offers a different route back to the Olympics than the four-player women’s team competition that defined most of her career. Muirhead told Olympics.com she wants to “return stronger than ever” and added, “I’ve got one last cycle in me.” ### How long has the 2030 target been on the calendar? (olympics.com) The International Olympic Committee elected the French Alps as host of the 2030 Winter Olympics on July 24, 2024, according to the IOC newsroom. Olympics.com’s August 6 interview framed Muirhead’s return specifically around Alpes 2030, making that Games cycle the timetable for her comeback. The IOC’s official event programme for Alpes 2030 is already published, and mixed doubles curling is part of the Olympic winter sports program. (olympics.com) That gives Muirhead a defined four-year runway from her August 2026 return announcement to the next Winter Games. ### What happens next in practical terms? (newsroom.olympics.com) August 6 is the date of Muirhead’s public return interview, but team selection for 2030 remains well ahead. Olympics.com said her immediate focus is the British mixed doubles pathway and a prospective Olympic partnership with Bobby Lammie. The next fixed milestone is the Alpes 2030 Olympic cycle itself, with Muirhead now back in training and competition planning after four years away. (stillmed.olympics.com) The IOC has already confirmed the French Alps as the 2030 host, and Muirhead has publicly tied her comeback to that Games target. (newsroom.olympics.com) (olympics.com)