Largest curling nation goes outside its borders
One of the most familiar and popular curlers in the world—who happens to be Scottish—has been named Curling Canada’s Director of High Performance.
Two-time world champion and Olympic silver medal-winning skip David Murdoch, who recently received his MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) award, will join Curling Canada at the end of the current curling season.
This marks the first time the largest curling nation in the world has gone outside its borders for top high performance leadership.
“It truly is a privilege and an honour to have this opportunity, and it’s not one I will take for granted,” said Murdoch in a statement. “Canadian curling has been the benchmark for excellence around the world and I’m looking forward to being a part of this amazing team of athletes and coaches, and being a part of the Canadian curling community. There’s work to be done, but I feel that there are opportunities for growth and accountability and I believe the pieces are in place for Canada to excel on the world stage and to continue meet the expectations of Canadian curling fans.
“I’m so appreciative of the time I’ve spent with British Curling and the support they’ve given me to develop as a coach. I feel the organization will continue to thrive because of the commitment of people who work there as well as the dedication of the athletes.”
Murdoch, 44, will be moving to Canada with his wife and three children upon completing his duties as the national and Olympic coach for British Curling, a role he’s held since September of 2018.
His wife, Stephanie, is from Vancouver Island; the two met when Murdoch was in British Columbia training for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.
“Having the opportunity to live in Canada was important to us as a family,” said Murdoch. “Our kids are half-Canadian and they love that part of their lives. And I have so much fondness and affection for Canada; I’ve been travelling there for one reason or another every year since 1995 and it feels like a part of me.”
Murdoch takes over for Gerry Peckham, who is retiring after 33 years with Curling Canada. As the High Performance Director, Peckham set a world-leading record for the production of international medals for Canada including world championships: 26 for men (15 gold), 28 for women (11 gold), 54 for U-21 men and women (26 gold), six wheelchair curling (three gold) as well as multiple podium finishes in the mixed, seniors, and mixed doubles disciplines.
Peckham also oversaw the program that produced 12 Olympic medals and five Paralympic medals, with podium finishes in every quadrennial since he joined the program.
In recent years, however, Canada’s performance at Olympic and world championships began to lag. Canada hasn’t won Olympic gold in men’s or women’s four-player curling since 2014, and both disciplines were shut out in 2018 (the women also missed the podium at Beijing 2022).
Canada hasn’t captured the men’s world championship since 2017, and Kerri Einarson’s bronze at last year’s world championship was the first podium appearance at the women’s worlds since gold was struck by Jennifer Jones in 2018.
“The Scottish teams have been playing at a very high level, and David clearly was an important part of that,” said Einarson in the Curling Canada statement.
“(Gerry’s) are big shoes to fill, but I will be eager to pick Gerry’s brain as I grow into this position,” said Murdoch. “He has built a world-class high-performance staff of coaches and subject-matter experts and I look forward to working with them.”
Murdoch’s hiring caps a process for Curling Canada that resulted in applications from around the world and from various sports.
As a player, Murdoch skipped Scotland to world championship gold medals in 2006 at Lowell, Mass., and 2009 in Moncton, N.B. to go along with two silver and two bronze medals.
The 2009 victory came at the expense of Canadian legend Kevin Martin, who famously declined to throw his first stone of the final end.
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Additionally, he skipped Great Britain to a silver medal at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Upon his retirement as a player in 2017, Murdoch moved into the realm of coaching and was named British Curling’s National and Olympic coach in September 2018, and helped establish the organization’s successful National Curling Academy.
Over the past four years, Murdoch has worked closely with Scotland’s top teams, and those squads had a superb 2018-22 Olympic cycle, capped by Team Eve Muirhead’s gold-medal women’s victory, a silver medal from Team Bruce Mouat and a fourth-place finish from the mixed doubles pairing of Jenn Dodds and Mouat at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.