SCOTTISH curling skip Eve Muirhead intends to be ruthless in the coming months as she starts to rebuild her team ahead of another Olympic cycle and an appearance at the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.

The three-time world junior champion suffered a miserable Winter Olympics in Vancouver earlier this year, before returning to form with a silver medal at the World Championships in March.

Veteran and former world champion Jackie Lockhart, who was a key member of the Vancouver rink, missed the silver medal winning performance in Canada last time out through injury.

And Muirhead admitted her new-look rink of Kelly Wood, Lorna Vevers and Ann Laird has given her a welcome glimpse of what the future now holds for her team ahead of Sochi.

“I had to make a decision at the end of the season as to what I wanted to do with my team for next year,” said Muirhead.

“And so I made the decision that we would keep with the team that we had for the World Championships.

“It is hard for Jackie Lockhart because she missed out on the World Championships with a knee injury but we are just aiming to have the same team at present.

“Hopefully I can put a good team together for Russia in 2014. It's hard to say what is going to happen between now and then though.

“We’ll be going to the Olympic Games to get a medal and we're going to do anything we can to get it.

“If a change needs to happen it will happen, I have selected my team for next year now and it is the same team as we had at the world championships.”

Muirhead, who took part in Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week – a sportscotland initiative that will involve over 700 schools across Scotland, admits she has learned her lessons from Vancouver.

And after revealing she wilted under the intense pressure earlier this year, Muirhead insists such a high-profile disappointment would only help to mould and improve her new-look rink.
“It is one of those things in curling – I think I personally definitely learned a lot from the Olympics,” she added.

“It's the hype and the pressure and there is so much media attention its crazy.

“You have got to concentrate on the curling and what you are doing and I think that is what I will learn for the future and hopefully use the experience at Sochi in 2014.

“For me to get to go to a Winter Olympics at only 19, you learn so much and hopefully I will take that on to Russia.”

Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week takes place from 7-11 June 2010.  To find out more visit www.schoolsportweekscotland.org