WHILE most of us have our eyes firmly set on Christmas, it is fair to say that Eve Muirhead and her Scottish curling team have one focus and that is the winter Olympics, which are just around 45 days away from opening in Beijing.
That will take us into February 2022 and I hope, by then, a much more settled global environment for everyone.
The team is made up of veteran Muirhead – for whom it will be a fourth winter Olympics – Jen Dodds, Hailey Duff, Vicky Wright – a staff nurse with NHS Forth Valley – and fifth player Mili Smith. They battled their way through some tough competition to secure their Olympics spot and I think that is probably the best Christmas present they could wish for.
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This got me thinking – what would be the perfect gift for our elite Scottish athletes?
We have some exciting events at home and abroad to look forward to in 2022 and I think all they would wish for is that we have Covid under sufficient control to allow friends, family and supporters to follow and support their individual favourites and savour once more the amazing atmosphere that is created around these types of events.
The Commonwealth Games takes place in Birmingham in August and Team Scotland has been announcing the names of those selected so far.
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I was delighted to see our GRM Marketing Sportswoman of the Year, Kathleen Dawson, has been named and look forward to another exciting performance from her in the pool, perhaps this time without the drama experienced at the Tokyo Olympics!
Netball Scotland were successful in their bid to host the European Netball World Cup Qualifiers 2022. The tournament will take place in Emirates Arena in Glasgow in October and the competing nations are Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Wales, Gibraltar and Isle of Man, all of them battling to qualify for the Netball World Cup in South Africa in 2023.
My Christmas wish is not so different and I wish you all a happy Christmas with a healthy and safe New Year. No matter what your sporting passion is, I am sure, given all that is planned for 2022, you will find something to enjoy.
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