When I was told that Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ shirt was getting put up for auction, my first thought was that it would go for quite a few thousand.
Shows you what I know about football memorabilia………it’s expected to fetch £4 million!
I don’t think the top I won the gold medal in will be getting close to that but I’ll be taking good care of it anyway!
I’ve got the bronze one from Sochi framed but other things that I make sure I keep, apart from the medals, are a bit random.
There’s a shoe that I won the Worlds in, for example!
It was falling apart and literally couldn’t have lasted another game.
You don’t want to change shoes in the middle of a season if you can avoid it – and certainly not in the middle of a big tournament – so looking at it every now and again brings back happy memories.
It’s hanging together by a thread.
I got a top from one of the Swedish girls at Beijing and one of the Swiss girls and it has made me think that I need to start to display them properly.
What I can say for sure is that I‘m not superstitious anymore about what I wear when I compete.
I notice that Callum Davidson has changed St Johnstone’s shorts from blue to white recently.
When I was younger things like red or white tops at an Olympics would be in my head but not these days.
Previously I wouldn’t have contemplated changing or washing a shirt if I was winning in it.
But after our semi-final this year there was make-up all over our tops from all the hugging and they had to be washed that night.
Back in the day I’d have been thinking ‘you can’t touch them’ but thankfully I know now that there are a lot of things that go towards a good performance and superstitions aren’t among them!
It was great to get back to Blair Atholl a few days ago and see some familiar faces in the village hall.
They’ve painted the chip shop gold up there, which is pretty cool!
I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing the look on people’s faces when they get to hold the gold medal.
And if I get a pound for every time someone says ‘it’s heavier than it looks’ I might get close to affording to buy that Maradona shirt!
I’m flying out to Canada for the Players Championship on Saturday.
As you would expect for the final Grand Slam of the season, all the big teams in the world will be there – eight from Canada, four European rinks, three Asian ones and an American team.
I’ve not been out there since we won our gold so I’m excited to get announced as number one seeds and Olympic champions!
It’s come at just the right time.
Life is starting to get back to normal after everything to do with Beijing and I’m ready to take on a big challenge like this again.
I’m not so sure the choreographed Tweeting from the Scottish women footballers about the SFA not opening up more of Hampden Park for their next international was the best idea.
Following record attendances at recent women’s football matches, the SFA have only opened a fraction of a 50,000+ capacity Hampden Park.
How are we expected to grow the game when only limited tickets are available for our supporters? Come on @ScotlandNT we can do better. pic.twitter.com/YqxcKydVQh
— Caroline Weir (@itscarolineweir) April 5, 2022
The sport is on a real journey just now and, as I wrote last week, there are signs of real growth.
There are times in every athlete’s career – in individual or team sports – that you feel that things should be done differently.
But these conversations should take place behind closed-doors.
