Rhona Martin
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Rhona Martin 2000) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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European Championship appearances | 6 (1996, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2006) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Olympic appearances | 2 (2002, 2006) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Rhona Howie,
Career
Early career
Martin was long known in Scottish curling circles for her uncanny knack of repeatedly failing to win the national championships at the final hurdle, but finally won the right to appear in a major international championship in 1998, where she was skip of the Scotland team that won a silver medal at the European Curling Championships. With some significant changes in personnel, she returned to the championships in Chamonix the following year, where the team was narrowly edged out of the medal placings.
In 2000, Martin's quartet won the Scottish Women's Curling Championship, defeating the team led by former Olympic skip Kirsty Hay in the final, and were therefore entitled to represent Scotland at the World Curling Championships, held that year in Glasgow. They performed well at the World Curling Championships, with a particular highlight of defeating the Canadian side skipped by Kelley Law in the round-robin stage of the competition. However, Law earned her revenge against Scotland in the semi-finals, leading Canada to a 10–6 win. Martin's team was disappointed after missing out on a medal by losing 10–5 to Dordi Nordby's Norwegian outfit in the subsequent play-off.
2002 Olympics
The fourth-place finish at the World Championships left the team well placed to secure its place as Great Britain's representatives at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, selection for which was based on performances in the World and European Championships over the whole four-year Olympic cycle. Crucially, though, changes in the team's line-up meant that the European silver medal in 1998 was discounted, meaning that the team skipped by former world junior champion Julia Ewart, which represented Scotland at the 2001 World Championships in Lausanne, had the potential to be selected. Ewart recovered from a slow start to string together an extraordinary sequence of wins; a gold for Scotland would take Ewart and her teammates to the Olympics, and a silver would result in a special play-off to decide the selection. However, Scotland were derailed in the semi-final by Sweden, allowing Martin's team to represent Great Britain in Salt Lake City.
After battling illness, Martin arrived in Salt Lake City, and she and her teammates found their Olympic form early, reaching the brink of qualification for the semi-finals by winning five out of their first seven round-robin matches. However, the USA team came back to win against Martin's with a steal, and the British team then succumbed to Germany in the concluding round-robin match. The team's chances of progressing were thus dependent on a Swiss win over Germany. In order to progress to the semi-finals, it was necessary for the British team to win two successive tie-break matches against Sweden and Germany, which was achieved. The win over Sweden was an upset as Elisabeth Gustafsson was a 4 time World Champion.
For their semi-final match, the British team was paired with
Post-Olympic career
Martin's team lost to Jackie Lockhart's rink in the three-match final of the Scottish Championships, played within days of their return to Scotland. Attention was focused on Lockhart, whose team subsequently won the World Championships for Scotland, with Lockhart selecting the same stone used by Martin to seal victory in the Olympics for her own winning delivery. The rock was dubbed the Stone of Destiny, and is now housed in a Scottish sports museum. In 2005, Martin was back on the world stage, when her all-star team (including Lockhart at the second position) finished fifth at the European Championships.[5]
Prior to the
In 2007, Martin halted playing for the time being and focused on coaching. She spent 3 years doing the UK Sport Elite Coach Programme whilst delivering the Performance Development Coach role within the national governing body for curling, the Royal Caledonian Curling Club, looking after the National and Regional Academies. Martin joined the BBC commentary team for the
Martin joined the BBC's commentary team for coverage of curling at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and again at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Medal theft
In May 2014, Martin's Olympic gold medal along with other Olympic memorabilia was stolen from a museum in Dumfries.[8] In September 2017, two men were convicted of the theft, with a third convicted in 2019.[9][10]
Awards
- Frances Brodie Award: 2000
References
- ^ "Rhona Martin – Curling – News, Olympic Results and History". teamgb.com. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ "Curling - GB golden girl Rhona Martin back with new name, same aim - Yahoo Eurosport UK". Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
- ^ "No. 56595". The London Gazette (Supplement). 15 June 2002. p. 19.
- ^ "Team GB – Official home of the British Olympic Association – London 2012 | Team GB". Britisholympians.com. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
- ^ a b Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Rhona Martin". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
- ^ a b Patrick Barkham (7 February 2010). "What happened to Britain's Olympic champion curlers?". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
- ^ "Rhona Martin MBE – Curling – Hamilton Management". 2 September 2012. Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ "Devastated Howie urges for return of stolen Olympic gold". Retrieved 20 February 2018.
- ^ "Thieves who stole Rhona Martin's Olympic medals jailed". HeraldScotland. Newsquest Media Group. 20 September 2017. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
- ^ "Man jailed over Rhona Martin Olympic medal theft". BBC News. BBC. 1 October 2019. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
External links
- Rhona Martin at World Curling
- Rhona Martin at Olympics.com
- Rhona Martin at Olympedia
- Rhona Martin at Team GB
- Rhona Martin at the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame