International Olympic Committee

25 January 2024 – The last time Great Britain’s Eve Muirhead and Canada’s Lisa Weagle were together at the Gangneung Curling Centre, they competed against each other at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. At the Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024, they are now back in a very different role as Chef de Missions, passing on their advice and experience to the young athletes they have accompanied to the Republic of Korea.

Each of the 78 National Olympic Committees represented at Gangwon 2024 has a Chef de Mission responsible for helping their athletes feel relaxed and ready to compete, while also being on hand to deal with any issues that arise.

Learning from an Olympic champion

Many of the Chefs de Missions at Gangwon 2024 bring valuable Olympic experience to the role. Few though can match the wealth of Olympic experience that Muirhead and Weagle bring.

Having made her Olympic debut as a 19-year-old at Vancouver 2010, Muirhead became the youngest curling skip to win an Olympic medal at Sochi 2014. Disappointment followed at PyeongChang 2018 when her team finished fourth, but she brought the curtain down on her Olympic career with her country’s only gold medal at Beijing 2022.

Having experienced the highs and lows of the Games, Eve Muirhead is perfectly placed to act as a sounding board for the 39 young athletes in the British team and guide them through their first Olympic competition – but admits that the role is no less challenging than competing for a gold medal.

“[Being a Chef de Mission] makes it seem like being an athlete was easy!” she says. “We start the day with the Chef de Mission briefings, which are early in the morning, and then we have meetings within our headquarters with our team leaders”.

Spokesperson, mentor, cheerleader

Unlike Muirhead, who retired after her Beijing triumph, Lisa Weagle is still competing in mixed doubles curling, while also getting some experience of coaching. For her, being Chef de Mission for Canada’s 79 athletes has been an eye-opening and rewarding experience.

“Being here in this role, you see how many people it takes to put on a Games,” she says. “For me with the Canadian Olympic Committee, there is just an incredible team who are world class – they would be Olympians at what they do. They are supporting me and supporting the team so that the athletes can just go out and perform.

“A lot of my job here is going out and cheering on Team Canada, but it’s also just being available to the athletes. I’ve experienced a lot of familiar feelings, and so being available to chat, to listen, or to be there for them in a difficult moment is an important part of the role.”

A path for other women to follow

Muirhead and Weagle, who are both world champions in curling, are now part of a welcome recent trend towards women occupying more leadership positions in winter sport. Muirhead has been heartened to see plenty of women leaders at the daily Chef de Mission briefings.

“When I’m at the briefings, it’s great to see that there are a lot of people in the room who are women,” she says. “I think you can see now that we are beginning to get more women involved in a lot of different aspects of sport and that things are starting to change, but we still need to keep pushing that forward.”

Weagle agrees, and hopes that she can inspire other women to follow her into senior leadership positions.

“Women belong in these spaces, and we need to keep pushing for inclusion.”

Find out more about the IOC’s efforts to promote gender equality in sport