Team GB women’s curling head coach Rhona Howie, formerly and famously Rhona Martin, kept six million viewers awake beyond midnight in 2002 as she cast the last stone at Salt Lake City to win Olympic gold for Britain.
In Sochi to mentor Eve Muirhead’s medal-chasing rink, Rhona recalled what was going through her mind when she threw the ‘stone of destiny’ 12 years ago to defeat Switzerland after a nail-biting final.
“Lots of people say the spectators were shouting things and getting excited but I don’t remember any of that,” she said.
“I was just focused and thinking ‘at least I’ve got a shot to play to win.’ The team had given me that opportunity. I did think to myself that I didn’t want to mess it up, but I didn’t put pressure on myself by thinking this was to win a medal.
“Also, there was more focus on the men’s team before Salt Lake City. And because there was limited media hype on us before we went, we thought only curlers would be watching the broadcast. We didn’t know the whole game was on live so we weren’t really aware which is probably a good thing and got on with what we were doing. Messages were coming in, but the coaches kept them away. We didn’t know anything.
“What surprised me later was the number of letters I got saying what people were doing at the time I threw the last stone.
“Some of the stories were incredible. One woman jumped out of her bed, landed on her cat and killed it!”
Now as Rhona Howie, she says she has seen footage of that dramatic last stone but has never watched the whole match.
“I don’t even know if I have a copy of it,” she laughed. “And the medal comes in a big wooden box it’s not something you’d sit out on your mantelpiece!
“But Olympic medals are definitely what the country wants, absolutely, and a great boost for the country in general. It was great for our minority sport back in 2002.”
Having partnered Steve Cram in the BBC commentary box at Vancouver, this is her first Olympics on the coaching staff.
“The commentary job was actually very useful as I was able to hear every word said on the ice, which I normally wouldn’t do as a player or coach. It was quite an insight and a good eye-opener for me.”
She is hoping to use her experience to guide Muirhead’s rink to success in Sochi, but said she will inevitably “throw every stone” with the team.
“Yes, probably. You work so closely with the girls. Every time a stone slides out of their hands, I’m watching what they’re doing, and feeling it. It’s a lot of stones every game for 2 hours. But you do. As coaches, we live every game they play.
“But they’re current world champions so they’re in a good place right now. Since they won the worlds, they have won silver at the Europeans and three Grand Slam events. So they’re playing well.
“Ice conditions in Sochi will make a difference as to how they will perform, but technically and tactically they’re in a good place.
“Everybody deals with pressure in different ways. These girls are still very young, but they’ve been at Youth Olympics,world juniors, world ladies they’ve got that experience of being at international level and playing the big games.
“They’ve listened and they appreciate that the Olympics are so much bigger. But do you know what? They’re young, they love it. They enjoy this. But the performance comes first. Every game here is going to be tough.”