Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

EVE MUIRHEAD: Easing into Chinese life, still getting Olympic goosebumps and finding good food hard to come by

Eve Muirhead is going to enjoy every moment of her fourth Winter Olympic Games.
Eve Muirhead is going to enjoy every moment of her fourth Winter Olympic Games.

This is my fourth Winter Olympic Games and every time I think about it I get goosebumps.

You always feel pride when you go to the Olympics.

That’s what I train for, I’m delighted to be here and I’m going to enjoy every single minute of it.

There were stages where I thought I’d never get here. Now I have the chance I need to enjoy it for sure.

Everything has gone smoothly so far.

I’m really looking forward to embedding into the environment and finding my feet over the first few days before things finally kick off on February 10.

That gives us a chance to attend the opening ceremony as it doesn’t muck up our schedule.

I know Jen [Dodds] and Bruce [Mouat] have taken the decision not to go because they are mid-competition.

But it’s always a great event to go to. Once it kicks in you realise what’s ahead of you.

One of my fondest memories was the opening ceremony in Vancouver.

The opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
The opening ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

That’s when it hits home when you walk out and Team GB is announced.

It will be slightly different this year as the British crowd won’t be there.

I think only Beijing residents are allowed to watch sport and things, so there won’t be other outside spectators but that is something we are used to.

It won’t faze us in any way. It will be loud cheers for China and no one else.

Finding good food a challenge

I’ve been to China a couple of times and played a World Championship here.

I’ll be honest, it’s challenging, especially with the food.

Hopefully with it being the Olympics, it might be a bit easier because there are so many people to cater for.

The good thing for us is that Bruce and Jen were here before us and offered a bit of a heads up from about what it’s like.

Jenn Dodds and Bruce Mouat have already started their Olympics in the mixed doubles.
Jenn Dodds and Bruce Mouat have already started their Olympics in the mixed doubles.

It meant that a lot of our support staff went to the supermarket with a suitcase to get easy, dried food for us to have, just to make it a little bit better.

That was the one thing we were worried about because, apart from the food, the atmosphere is great.

Each nation usually has an apartment block and it’s the same this time.

Our girls’ team have an apartment, as do the boys and our support staff.

The accommodation is first class, there are no complaints about that because you want it to be just like home.

It’s a bit like living with your friends but one thing I’d say to anybody going to the Olympics for the first time is knowing when to switch off and relax and enjoy it, while also knowing when to switch on and get into game mode.

Medal hopes

We have three big medal hopes this year.

Our mixed doubles go in as current world champions and the men are also the best team in the world right now.

For us, there’s a little less pressure. We came the long way round to qualify but I do believe we can beat any team out there.

We have proven that, but it’s nice to go in a little bit under the radar.

Elsewhere I love watching all the events. I’ll be keeping an eye on that for any medals they bring in.

We’ll be watching any Team GB athlete who’s competing, with it being such a small contingent of 50 athletes.

We know each other by first names and that’s always a great thing.

Winter Olympics: What life is like in the Beijing Games closed-loop system