'The Stone of Destiny' .

. . the shot which secured gold for the British team in 2002 was a headline writer's dream.

The perfect draw produced by skip Rhona Howie (then Martin) at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics truly fitted the description as that moment - which some six million television viewers across the UK stayed up to watch - can genuinely be described as having transformed the image of her sport.

She remains reluctant to accept the credit but admits: "The jokes about curling and sweeping floors seem to have gone away a bit now. The power of television and the Olympics . . . I didn't appreciate how big that would be when we were in Salt Lake, but it's great for curling."

As Eve Muirhead, Howie's successor as the golden girl of the Scottish game, pointed out this week, there is still some distance to go in terms of maximising attention outside of the Olympic window.

An opportunity was missed a decade ago to capitalise on the rivalry between Howie and her compatriot Jackie Lockhart - she won the world championship just a few weeks later - before the momentum was allowed to peter out.

Muirhead's call for more regular opportunities to play in front of Scottish audiences is all the more relevant given the embarrassing decision not to allow her to defend her world title. Next year's Scottish Championship - which doubles as the qualifying tournament for the world championship - clashes with the Winter Olympics in Sochi. It is the sort of administrative nonsense that Scottish sportsmen and women routinely have to put up with.

Now coach to the women's rink of Muirhead, Claire Hamilton, Vicki Adams and Anna Sloan - who were named this week as the first members of Team GB for those Winter Olympics - Howie's focus is fully on their preparation. She knows that in the skip in particular, she has a worthy successor in the pursuit of gold. "Eve's got great talent," she said, "and I would have absolutely no qualms about her drawing the final stone to win gold."

Naturally, like any competitor, she admits it will be tougher sitting on the sidelines should that moment arrive. "At least when you're on the ice you have that control over what you do," she explained. "When you're off the ice and watching you just hope they do what you've told them to do, but I have no qualms about Eve leading the team. Her leadership skills have got better and better and she calls a very good game but is always willing to learn which is an important thing. She's always wanting to learn, so from a tactical side that's great."

Praise that, it seems, applies to the entire group. For all that there is no real difference when it all comes down to having the nerve to execute much-practised skills when the key moment arrives - as happened when Muirhead won the world title earlier this year - the way the team prepares has been transformed.

"The training has changed dramatically over the years," said Howie. "Other countries are training full-time so we have to keep on top of them.

"We don't want to keep up with them, we want to be on top. So for our guys they are lucky they are able to train full-time and put in the work that's needed. We really have concentrated on the technical side of the game and also the team dynamic side of things which is a huge area. Although the sport hasn't itself vastly changed, with the tactical part of the game there are areas that have moved on considerably and we have to make sure our athletes are on the top of their game.

"When they hit the ice there's lot happening on the outside and big euphoria because it's an Olympic park - which curling's never had - so that will all be very exciting. As coaches our job really is to keep that focus as soon as they're on the ice. That's the job they're there to do."