Having earned her place at yet another World Championship and taken a major step towards contesting a third Winter Olympics Britain’s top curler Eve Muirhead has been faced with a very happy dilemma.
The opportunity of heading to Asia to take part in a tournament with 14 other teams and a prize fund of around $140,000 is a reflection of the commercial transformation of curling that has been demonstrated domestically by live BBC coverage of a Scottish event and, tellingly the backing of the national championships of a sponsor with an image far removed from those more traditionally associated with the sport.
However the timing, just ahead of the World Curling Championships, would mean a challenging travel schedule.
On the face of it the choice confronting Team Muirhead can be characterised as a straightforward one, to chase the money or to prioritise representing her country on the global stage.
However there is an additional venue in that the country in which this glamour event is being staged is Korea and that means there is potential added value in taking part as the 25-year-old pointed out.
“We just got an invite to an event in Korea so we’re going to have to look at our schedule and see what fits in and what’s worth going to with the Worlds obviously the number one priority,” Muirhead explained.
“For our team winning this Scottish Championships puts you one step closer to the Olympics in Korea as well, though, so I guess to get any chance to go out there is probably a help and a bonus, but we’ve got to look at our diaries and see what happens.
“I wouldn’t complain about these problems though.”
The decision consequently seems set to be made on the basis of what is best for the team in terms of their competitiveness in the big international events in spite of the financial carrot being dangled by the Koreans with their skip promising that the matter will be settled quickly.
“In the next few days we need to sit down and think what the best thing is to do for the team,” said Muirhead.
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