Eve Muirhead revokes retirement to return to competitive curling

Eve Muirhead, the Winter Olympic gold medallist who announced her retirement from curling in 2022, has reversed that decision and confirmed she will return to competitive play after a four-year absence from the sport.

Milan-Cortina reignited the fire

Muirhead, 34, served as Team GB’s chef de mission at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics earlier this year — a leadership role that, somewhat unexpectedly, pulled her back toward the ice rather than away from it. Watching British athletes compete at the highest level, she says, reminded her exactly what she had walked away from. And it turns out that was enough.

“Being in that environment, around the athletes, around the competition — it just brought everything back,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to affect me the way it did.”

Muirhead led Scotland and Great Britain’s women’s curling team to gold at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, a victory that ended a decades-long wait for a British curling title at the Games. She announced her retirement shortly after, citing the physical and emotional toll of more than 15 years at elite level.

A decorated career interrupted, not ended

Her return to the sport won’t be without its challenges. Four years is a long time in competitive curling. The rosters have shifted, younger skips have emerged on the World Curling Tour, and the qualification pathway for the next Winter Olympics — set for 2030 in the French Alps — is already taking shape.

Still, Muirhead’s credentials are hard to argue with. She’s a three-time World Championship medallist, a four-time European champion, and now an Olympic gold medallist. The sport knows her name. The question is whether her game can get back to where it was.

British Curling confirmed the news and offered their full support.

“Eve is one of the greatest curlers this country has ever produced, and we’re delighted she’s coming back,” a British Curling spokesperson said. “We’ll be working with her to put a proper plan in place for her return.”

What comes next

The logistics of her comeback are still being worked out. Muirhead hasn’t announced which team she’ll compete with or confirmed her schedule for the 2025-26 curling season. But the intent is clearly there, and sources close to the situation say she’s already been back on the ice informally over the past several weeks.

Her return could shake up the British women’s curling landscape significantly.

The 2030 Winter Olympics represent a realistic target. That gives her roughly four years — almost exactly the same amount of time she spent away. If the Milan-Cortina experience taught her anything, it’s that she still wants to be the one competing, not the one watching.

So the retirement is over. Eve Muirhead is back.